


Fate's Shrapnel

by Tyellas



Category: Terminator (Movies), Terminator - All Media Types, Terminator: Dark Fate
Genre: Action, Age Difference, Anal Play, Angst and Feels, Asexual Character, Asexual Relationship, Body Worship, Canon-Typical Violence, Casual Sex, Coda, Cunnilingus, Cute Kids, Cybersex, Cyborg Related Sexual Tension, Dirty Talk, Domestic Fluff, Drama, Established Relationship, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, Femdom, Femslash, Fisting, Gap Filler, Gen, Happy Ending, Medical Procedures, Mommy Kink, Original Augment Character, Original Character(s), Politics, Postapocalyptic, Road Trip!, Road Trips, Rough Sex, Skippy's List, Smut, Strap-Ons, Threesome - F/F/F, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, Warnings noted for each chapter, mild gender play, someone says 'ok boomer', what's it like to be an Augment, yes we did switch to genfic for that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:08:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 40,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22061566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tyellas/pseuds/Tyellas
Summary: ShortTerminator: Dark Fatepieces for prompts, gifts, and other follow-ups toFate Throws a Dagger. Some smut, some genfic, check the titles for rating and pairing. This update, a slightly-AU piece-in-between:the arrangement– Waiting for Judgement Day, Sarah and Grace both know too much - and need a break from it. Explicit smut! With Sarah on top.
Relationships: Alicia/Carl (Terminator), Grace Harper/Dani Ramos, Grace Harper/OFC, Sarah Connor/Dani Ramos, Sarah Connor/Grace Harper
Comments: 131
Kudos: 133





	1. the mission (ace Carl and Alicia)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bookscorpion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookscorpion/gifts), [LightDescending](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightDescending/gifts), [dire_quail](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dire_quail/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My friend bookscorpion wanted life at home with Carl... so here we go! From a rewrite setting to a reveal, here's Alicia's life with Carl. The violence is at the start, as is canon for poor Alicia.

**2000**

Alicia had met him when she’d failed.

She’d started out like any other migrant, wanting a better life. That had gone so badly. Shown her what a young woman, alone and undocumented, was worth. Plenty of money, little personhood. Three months after she’d had Mateo, she decided: enough was enough. She had to get out. For the sake of her child, the only thing her downward spiral had given her.

They’d been in a ground-down motel near the border: her, Mateo, and the latest man to order her around. It had been two in the morning. She’d been trying to unlock the car when Mateo got whiny. “Shhh, shhh, _gatito_ ,” she’d whispered. She’d been rocking him when a greasy, tattooed hand fell on her shoulder. Letters on each knuckle spelled out: ZERO.

“Uh-uh, _mamacita._ ” In the black-and-white of a night parking lot, Zero was half a head taller than Alicia, twice her weight. He grabbed her, spun and slammed her into the car’s metal. She angled herself to protect Mateo. The baby’s presence, his thin wail, wasn’t stopping this.

Zero snarled, his teeth’s silver grill glittering darkly. Like he was metal inside, instead of human. “The fuck are you doing? You’re my cover, goddamn it. My property, bought and paid for. I’ll fuckin’ kill your brat and then – “ He pulled his pistol.

“No!” Alicia curled up around her baby. _“_ _Morir_ _é primero!_ _”_

That was when a night shadow fell across the three of them. “I need your clothes, your boots, and your weapon.”

Zero whirled around. “The fuck?”

Another man was there, tall as Zero. His torn T-shirt was pink under the parking lot lights. His beard and hair were rough, wild. He was barefoot, in tattered cutoffs. The threadbare rags barely restrained his tanned muscles.

Zero laughed, flexed. “Some _gabacho_ hobo dero bro trying to hold me up? Shit!”

The other man repeated, grimly, “I need your clothes, your boots, and your weapon.”

“Fuckin’ A you do, Jimmy Buffett. But they’re mine.” Zero aimed, spared a glance to sneer at Alicia. “Watch this, bitch, ‘cause you’re next.”

Alicia crammed a fist in her mouth as Zero fired. One shot hit the man, parting wild hair, streaking his skull. But that only paused his strength. Alicia could have sworn his eyes flashed red. He shook his bloodied head, said a word that she couldn’t catch with Mateo wailing in her ear. _Redrum_ or _Remember_ or, maybe, _Rewrite._

As Zero gaped, he closed the gap, lifting Zero with one huge hand on the back of Zero’s shaved skull. Snapping Zero’s neck.

This done, the stranger detached the pistol from Zero’s hand, chucked him across the car’s hood. He stayed focused on what he wanted, unbuttoning Zero’s shirt. All the while, ignoring Alicia.

Alicia dared to stand. Rocking Mateo more, she asked, “Can I help you?”

He jolted, a minor tic, and asked her in turn, “Can I help you?”

Alicia asked, “Are you hurt?”

Her savior tilted his head. He said, slowly, “Are you hurt?”

Alicia stooped and picked up the car keys with her free hand. “I – we will be all right. Who are you? What brought you here?”

He blinked. “Who I am…does not matter. I had completed my mission. I returned to my point of origin. But there was nothing more for me.”

She wondered, wildly, was he a secret agent? More likely, a discarded cartel hitman, haunted by what he’d done. Mateo, hiccupping into quiet, squirmed more in her arms. Alicia inhaled. “I think he hurt your head. I think… we can help each other.”

“Help each other,” he said.

Alicia fumbled the car open, popped the trunk. “Can you –” He must have been in a daze, for when Alicia stammered orders, he followed them. Soon, Zero was tucked away. When she said, “Come,” he followed her inside. And watched in silence as she changed Mateo’s diaper.

* * *

The next morning, they were still in the motel room. They had given Zero the burial he deserved, in a muddy irrigation ditch, with the drugs he’d been smuggling.

Alicia decided this man was foreign, like her. His Spanish and English were both accented, like he was from Europe. After they returned, Alicia asked if he wanted some food. Yes, but only a little. She offered him Zero’s clothing. He chose one outfit, simple and sturdy. He let Alicia clean his scalp wound. When she offered to cut his hair, trim his beard, he said yes to that, too.

Leaning in to do that, her breasts in front of his face, Alicia found herself trembling so much she couldn’t hold the scissors. This stranger was handsome and strong. He had saved her life. In a telenovela she’d be swept away by romance. But she’d never loved like that. Especially physically. That had been nothing but pain and wrongness, to her. If she offered, she could get it over with.

“You – do you – want to have me?” Alicia braced herself for his yes.

“No.”

Alicia’s astonished silence stretched so long that he spoke again. “I do not function sexually.”

Thinking of some of the men she’d endured, Alicia said, “At least you admit it.” Weary, overwrought, she laughed until she cried a little. Finally, she shook her head. “The perfect man… thank you.” With that, she managed to tidy him up.

Alicia slept, after that, oddly fearless. Awakening, she found him watching TV with Mateo. His massive, muscular weight dented the cheap hotel bed. Alicia sniffed, but everything smelled all right. Could this man have changed a baby’s diaper?

Mateo cooed. The man held him up. They both watched the television, transfixed by a child’s show, _Mister Rogers._

_It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,  
A beautiful day for a neighbor.  
Would you be mine?  
Could you be mine?..._

This was what Alicia had wanted when she’d made the bad, hopeful, lied-to decisions that had led to her sobbing on the asphalt last night. A little family. There’d always been her coldness, but maybe if she’d met the right man… now, perhaps, she had.

_So, let's make the most of this beautiful day.  
Since we're together we might as well say:  
Would you be mine?  
Could you be mine?  
Won't you be my neighbor?_

“Neighbor,” the man repeated. Mateo crowed.

Alicia said, softly, “You could stay with us a while, if you wanted. We could help each other.”

He blinked, as he had outside, when they’d first met. “Can I help you?”

“Yes. You have already helped me. I would like to help you, too.”

Shyly, Alicia made the offer she had been turning over in her mind. “I won’t ask you about your past if you don’t ask me about mine.”

That changed something in him, like she’d thrown a switch. “These are secure parameters. I accept.”

On the television, Mister Rogers was talking to a king and queen. They were only puppets, but he greeted them like they were people. _Hi, neighbor!_ Mateo crowed again, happily.

* * *

**2001 - 2008**

At first, he’d let the world call him the name Zero had mocked him with, Jimmy, while using Zero’s identity. While Mateo was small, Alicia had worked days: he had worked nights, a security guard. Neither of them drank. Nor did they like to go to church. “It is a system I do not believe,” he said. Alicia missed it, especially holidays, but she couldn’t cope with the idea of going to confession. Without partying or tithes, they saved money. A year in, they married at the Laredo town hall, where the clerks were used to couples like them. It still took a while to make her a citizen, after 9/11.

When they bought a drapery business and a cabin from a retiree, he said, “I should be Carl. It will help with the business.” He was right. People expected there to be a Carl at Carl’s Drapery. At first, Alicia had done the sewing, while he did the accounting. She had seen how good he was with numbers.

They both adored the cabin. “It is quiet here. I can hear myself think,” Carl said. Their first year, Carl spent weekends in the toolshed, fossicking with what the old man owner had left behind. Alicia took shelter in her room – a room of her own. They slept separately. Every night, sliding her toes down her own cool bed, Alicia sighed with relief. Carl was still marvelous with Mateo, always awake if the toddler was restless at night.

Within a year, they had switched what they did at work. Carl was brusque and impatient on the phone, which didn’t get invoices paid. He had volunteered to help with a big job and learned so well and quickly, it was like he was born to sew. “It is like engineering, with fabric.”

Mateo grew into a child who loved every dog he saw. It took a couple of tries for Alicia and Carl to get a dog that worked out. The first one they’d adopted, an awfully cute beagle, was terrified of Carl, never got over it. Alicia guessed a man had abused the poor animal. Their second dog, an older poodle, took to Mateo right away, but was very quiet. That one ran away within two days, never to be seen again. They splurged on a pointer from a breeder, a very young puppy, and that made the difference.

Neither Alicia nor Carl cared about vacations. Alicia still fretted about passing through Customs. Carl agreed. “Metal detectors violate our privacy.” Instead, they had peaceful evenings at home, walking the dog, playing games with Mateo, reading.

He read _Wired_ and _Scientific American_ and endless news. Alicia preferred books. She loved the old American ones, _Little Women_ and _The Bostonians_ , Sarah Orne Jewett and Edith Wharton. Refined worlds, the opposite of what she’d escaped. Her own American dream. When she read Carl passages that moved her, he actually listened. Carl even said he liked a poem by her favorite of them all, Emily Dickinson:

_My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun - In Corners - till a Day_

_The Owner passed - identified - And carried Me away_ _…_

_Though I than He - may longer live - He longer must - than I -_

_For I have but the power to kill - Without - the power to die -_

* * *

**2012**

When Mateo went to school, Alicia did, too. It took her four part-time years to get an Associate’s of Business. Carl looked after Mateo and worked with drapery and cleaned the house. The only thing Alicia couldn’t trust Carl with was cooking. Recipes didn’t help. “I do not have the taste buds or sense of smell you do.” Alicia let him off the hook, filled the freezer up once a week. 

After Alicia graduated, they gathered at one of her classmate’s houses for a barbecue. One man eyed Carl up and down. “Damn, son, you look amazing. What’s your secret?”

Carl lifted his plate, half a steak and some salad. “I only take the baseline nutrients my flesh requires for maintenance.”

The man smiled. “Aw, durn it. Beer is a food group at my house! You and Alicia look great together. A real good-looking couple.”

Carl said, “Surely Alicia’s appearance is superior to mine. She puts more time into her maintenance and physical presentation.”

A woman said, “You hear that? That’s how you talk if you want to get lucky tonight.”

The man socked Carl’s upper arm. “Ow! Man o' steel over here! Quit being so perfect, Carl, you’re making the rest of us look bad!”

“Do not worry. I am not human.” Carl slapped his own muscular forearm. “Under my flesh I am a robot from the future.”

Everyone chuckled. The man lifted his beer. “Carl, you’re a laugh riot! Wait, wait… if you’re a robot from the future…you got any advice for me?”

Carl said, “Yes. Acquire Bitcoin. It is an electronic form of funding generated through blockchain coding…” They had done that already. Carl liked to check on it once a day.

“Stop, you’re killing me! Like a Dalek. _Exterminate! Exterminate!_ ” The man stuck his arms out and waddled, his own robot walk. Alicia smiled. Carl was so serious, like she was. He was strong enough to find a way to turn it into a joke.

“Terminate,” Carl said.

“Naw, dude, it’s _ex-terminate_ , somebody tell this guy about Doctor Who…”

* * *

**2016**

Suddenly, Carl began aging very quickly. He went gray overnight. His face sagged. As always, he refused to see a doctor. “Telomere failure is inevitable.” Alicia was uneasy, but she had her friends to talk to.

At the Starbucks in Laredo, they all agreed that the men in their lives had fallen apart overnight, too. As for not going to the doctor, Alicia’s loudest friend, Jolene, declared, “Isn’t that just like a man, honey. I can’t get Bodine to the doctor’s nohow. Look after the kids while you can. How’s your Mateo?”

Alicia said, “So clever, he does the web site for our business, now. Oh! He has discovered girls. Axe body spray, also.”

They all giggled. A different woman said, “I had that with my first two. My youngest has discovered boys. He’s also overdoing the body spray. I thought a gay son would give me a break from that! Nope!”

Jolene sighed. “My daughter is being I don’t know what all. I had to write it down.” She took her phone out. “ _Demiromantic-nonbinary-asexual._ Asexual! Means she don’t want anybody properly.”

Alicia didn’t listen to anything else they said, after that. At home, in the cool privacy of the night, she searched for it online. She stared at the web pages for a very long time. The only thing that didn’t electrify her with recognition was its flag. She wished the asexual flag had nicer colors. She liked blues and yellows, not black and gray. Was this Carl, too? She closed her laptop, to peek into Carl’s bedroom.

Carl was the worst insomniac in the world. Perhaps his fast aging was his lack of sleep catching up with him. Tonight, he lay there like always, ramrod straight, facing the ceiling. His mobile phone was beside him. Its light reflected in his open eyes. “Alicia,” he said.

“You’re awake.” Alicia came and sat on the edge of his bed. “Your phone does not help you sleep. What are you looking at, this time of night?”

“New Zealand,” Carl said. “It is a very interesting place. Did you know that New Zealand is at lower risk of global warming than other nations? If there is a global temperature rise, it will become subtropical and maintain reasonable rainfall.”

Alicia put a hand on his shoulder. This was why Carl was aging so quickly. Worrying about everything in the world. She thought about giving him another complex thing to worry about, and said nothing.

* * *

**2017**

Alicia didn’t like Carl’s guns. Since the election, and the sleepless nights it brought her, too, Carl had acquired weapon after weapon. He’d filled up the former tool shed and insisted on teaching her how to shoot. Mateo, too.

Together, at their own little shooting range, the three of them were the perfect image of a Texas family. It didn’t feel as good to Alicia as it used to. Mateo redeemed it by being, well, Mateo. Helping her, fumblingly. Shy and snarky by turns, lighting up when he did well or he felt he’d won an argument.

Carl, she felt, pressured him. “Do they admire you at school because you can use these weapons?”

Mateo said, “No, Dad, I’d come across like some Columbine school shooting loser.”

Carl said, neutrally, “I want you to survive.”

“I can’t bring a gun to school. They’ve got metal detectors and everything.”

Carl added, “Later. If this society collapses. You could join the military. They have tremendous resources.”

Mateo groaned, “Dad, we talked about this, I’m in college prep and…” He perked up. “Can I take ju jitsu too? Gordy and Matt are doing it and this girl I really – like, if society collapses, we won’t have ammo after a while, right?”

“An excellent plan.” Carl ruffled Mateo’s hair, one of the many touches or turns of phrase he’d picked up from Alicia.

Mateo dodged. “Dad! I’m too old for that!” Alicia slid closer. Carl tried, but he had a hard time with how quickly Mateo changed, was challenged to read his moods.

Alicia met Carl’s eyes. “He tells me that, too. Okay, my turn.” With Carl bracing her against the light rifle’s recoil, it wasn’t so bad.

Until after dinner. Carl watched news late into the night, on three screens at once. It was all bad. When Alicia went upstairs to read in peace, her hands still smelled like gunpowder. She was still awake at one in the morning. Though Carl was, too, she did not go to him.

* * *

**2018**

Mateo got early acceptance at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. “This is it! I told you, I don’t want to join the army. I want to be a programmer and make the future happen. Plus, I got a Dyson scholarship so you and Mom don’t have to pay.”

“This is wonderful, Carl. You should be proud,” Alicia hinted.

Carl was unsmiling. “You are going to be a programmer and make machines run? Is that your mission?”

Mateo scuffed the kitchen linoleum. “Yeah, but not just _machine_ s, the whole future. It’s complicated. I got the scholarship because I’m gonna focus on A.I.”

Alicia saw a spark kindle in Carl’s eyes. “It will have risks. It will be dangerous. But to create is the best thing you can do. I respect this decision. Your mission.” He shook Mateo’s hand. 

This distance, still. Alicia’s heart ached for whatever had damaged Carl before they’d met: the way he had never healed. What had he done, what had he been? Alicia pulled them into a three-way hug: her son, turning into a man, and Carl, the man and his emptiness. She cared for Carl, yes. But somehow she’d shifted from wondering if he deserved better than her, to if she deserved better than him.

* * *

**2020**

The Saturday after Mateo came home from college, for a visit before a summer internship, it all fell apart, as quickly as it began.

Alicia came home with a week’s worth of groceries to find what they never had: guests. Three strangers, all women. A woman who looked like home, a woman like one of Mateo’s athletic dream girls, and the woman who ruined everything.

Any one of her coffee friends would have ignored the last woman for the two young beauties. But Alicia’s life, with Carl and without, had taught her to see a real threat. Alicia knew immediately Carl had a terrible past with the oldest woman. That one glared at Carl with hatred, stared at Alicia as if she could burn Alicia down. Had she loved Carl, once, to hate him so? Had enduring her burned out Carl’s emotions? Carl was calm, and the dog was, too. Alicia said, “Your friends look hungry, Carl. Perhaps they would like some chips and sandwiches?” She tried to sound normal, knew she failed.

The youngest woman – could she be the same age Alicia had been when she met Carl? – was sweetly self-possessed, leaping up to help. The blonde gave Alicia one deep stare, gave Mateo another, and watched her young friend. But she was kind to Mateo, eating the chips the smitten boy brought her as tribute.

Maybe the blonde really was hungry. She followed Mateo when he brought back the empty bowl, scanning the house inside. “Dani. Everything all right in here?”

“ _Es bueno._ We’re making tortas,” Dani said. “I promise you, everything is fine.”

The blonde lingered. “I can’t help it, Dani. You’re my mission.” Alicia paused at that. The blonde must be from the same gang as Carl, once upon a time. They both had the same stern strangeness.

Dani smiled winningly. “You can mission these plates out. Make sure Sarah eats something.”

Alicia lifted a plate with a little meat and salad on it. “I will take this to Carl. Excuse me.” Dani gave her an understanding nod.

While Dani distracted the older woman, Alicia drew Carl aside. “Who is she? That - Sarah. How do you know her?” She glanced back again. Sarah and Carl seemed to be the same age.

Carl nodded. “You are right, to see that immediately. I am not as fast as you with people. Even after my years with you.” He looked into the distance. “My past has caught up with me. The past I never told you about. You and Mateo should leave now. Perhaps go to where Mateo will be working this summer. Take all the money in our accounts. I don’t think I’ll be coming back.”

It was a divorce in an instant. Alicia, herself, broke years of silence. “What did you do? Why does she hate you so much?”

Carl said, “I killed her son. On my mission, before I met you.”

Alicia felt sick, then hollow. She replayed the night she'd met Carl, black shadows and white glare, terror for her son's life. She stepped away. “Was he your son, too?”

“No. But after you and Mateo, I understand what I did.”

Alicia’s heart filled anew. She understood, as well. Carl’s miserable wandering when they'd first met. His enduring distance. His fears. The way he’d never healed. “You are a good man, if doing such a thing broke you. I was broken, too, when we met. Now…I am not.” Alicia looked him in the eye. “If making this right is your mission…do what you need to.”

They had a final, cool embrace. Alicia leaned into it. They had barely talked, these past few years. Their own preoccupations had sheltered each other. Leaving him meant she’d have to explain, for the rest of her life. She could, now.

When they drove away, Carl waved until they were out of sight. The three strangers watched, a tight unit. Alicia stopped the car in the driveway, poured her final feelings out into a card. Carl was so conscientious, she was sure he’d find it in the mailbox. In the back seat, Mateo was clinging to Pointer. The car’s trunk was filled with his things. Alicia had only taken one bag, for herself. That felt right. She had enough to carry in her heart.

Pointer whined. So did Mateo. “Mom, what the – what the fudge? I was gonna tell the cool chick about my A.I. internship. What’s going on? I need you to tell me everything!”

That hard older woman flashed before Alicia’s eyes. Sarah had no qualms about swearing and sneering in front of her and Mateo. How awful would Alicia have become, if Mateo had been killed? If she had been alone? “I will, Mateo, I promise.” Alicia drove through the gate, letting it swing. “I told you I met Carl when I was very young, and you were a baby. I did not tell you how…”

* * *

November was when Alicia got the insurance payout. She’d been tracked down in July around their cabin burning down. She didn’t need the money. She’d only taken half of what was in their accounts – for Carl had been right about Bitcoin. She never had to work again, if she didn’t want to.

The insurance adjusters assumed Carl was with her, where Mateo worked and studied, in Boston. Alicia did not tell them otherwise. She didn’t think he’d survive that awful woman and whatever she demanded of him. If Carl did, he’d take on a new face, make amends by protecting that other woman, the new focus of a mission.

In Boston, Alicia’s American dream had come true: book groups, literary walks, hiking with Pointer through autumn leaves. She’d gone to a local library so much, she wound up volunteering, helping them start a Spanish-language program. A shouty rainbow-haired librarian, over lunch one day, asked her lots of personal questions. Alicia let herself give real answers. The next day, her new friend gave Alicia a purple-grey-black flag pin. It was perfect with Alicia’s new Boston wardrobe.

She missed Carl, occasionally. When she did, Boston’s autumn rain made the world feel sad along with her.

Alicia deposited the insurance money into Mateo’s school fund. Then, she went to light a candle for Carl. Boston had given her the perfect place for that. The church all the city’s Catholics called The Mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gatito – Kitten.  
> Moriré primero – I’ll die first.  
> We get the Mr. Rogers theme song!


	2. the question (genfic)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short _Terminator: Dark Fate_ fill, from a prompt by LightDescending:
> 
> _In between leaving Carl’s cabin and arriving near the army base where Major Dean met them, Carl, Sarah, Grace, and Dani had a 96-mile or so trip to get through in Carl’s van. A road trip. That’s at least an hour and a half together. In a van. Driving fast. They can’t have spent it in silence._
> 
> Everybody in the drapery van for how this road trip might have started...and a very important question from Dani.

After the van was loaded, Sarah didn’t call shotgun. Not when she was planning on killing their driver: the Terminator who had killed her son.

That had to wait. Sarah took the seat right behind him, in his _Carl’s Drapery_ van, and flicked the safety off her semiautomatic. Grace noticed, like she noticed everything, and gave Sarah the scantest nod of approval. Sarah lifted her chin back.

Grace paused strategically, trying to pick the best seats for her and Dani. Dani spoiled that by hopping into the front seat, next to the Terminator. Grace tightened her fists, but she didn’t say anything. She took the seat behind Dani, next to Sarah, and didn’t buckle up. Ready to move.

The Terminator’s false cheer was perfect as he said, “Next stop, your military base.”

They drove on for a completely silent five minutes. The sun was setting. Sarah focused on street signs and intersections, let them brand themselves into her adrenaline-fired brain.

Dani was the only one who felt the human need to break the ice. “Carl…your work is making curtains?”

The Terminator replied like Dani’s question was an order. “Yes. Alicia and I worked together. At first she made the curtains and I did the accounting, because it is numbers. But it is numbers around money, and money involves humans. Alicia was better with humans. First, she is human. Second, many humans are favorably biased towards Alicia because she has symmetrical features.”

“So you changed to make the curtains,” Dani said.

“Yes. I would speak with customers sometimes, when they needed a logical approach. But enough about me. What is your profession?” Oh, he was good at this faking-human shit. Sarah’s mouth twisted.

Dani sighed a little. “I worked in a factory. We made cars for the United States. Electronics first, then I changed, too, in Panels to get Diego started.”

The Terminator echoed Dani. “A factory. You manufactured. That is one of the best things you can do. I was honored to take over the manufacturing for our business.”

Sarah was on the edge of her seat. She’d never heard a Terminator sound _satisfied_ before. Never had a trace of them having _values._ It unlocked what had eaten Sarah alive since he’d admitted sending Sarah coordinates. _Why?_ Why did he give a fuck – why was he still thinking about her, after ‘the mission’ was over? Sarah was getting an idea. She’d manufactured the most important thing in the world to him. The target for that mission.

On that same track, Dani asked, “In your future, why did the AIs, the machines, fight humans? Could we not have gotten along? Like you and Alicia? Like – like us, now?”

Sarah ground her teeth, hands sweating on her semiautomatic. Grace, too, was practically vibrating with fury. Which one of them was going to explode first?

He saved them the trouble. “Skynet identified fundamental resource incompatibilities between humans and intelligent machines. To use a phrase from your movies: this town is not big enough for the both of us.”

Grace subsided. Slowly, again, she nodded. “That’s how it was,” she said.

Sarah sat back. Her life hadn’t been ruined for nothing. Whatever the timeline, the machines would make their ruthless decision. In the cold zone of the truth, she could be a machine, too, honed on their mission. And she flicked her gun’s safety back on.


	3. the dark (e! sarah/dani)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _the dark_ – For once, Dani, Sarah, and Grace check into a decent motel. With some breathing room, Dani and Sarah have their own encounter. Explicit femslash. A _Fate Throws a Dagger_ follow-up for Amber.

It was after dark. Dani parked their 4 x 4 in a motel lot while listening to Sarah.

“If anyone asks,” Sarah was saying, “we’re road tripping. Dani, if they ask what we’re here for, throw it back at them. Ask for the main attraction in this area and agree, say it’s that. The less we stand out, the better.” With that, Sarah slipped her arm out of its sling.

“Sarah!” Dani scolded. “You are supposed to wear that for six weeks. It has only been two.” Ever since their last hideout cabin had gone down to a Terminator and up in flames, they’d been on the road. Sarah and Grace had both needed to recuperate afterwards. Sarah, not being an Augmented super-soldier, was still mending.

Sarah tossed the sling into the back seat. Grace dodged it. “This, and your girlfriend, are too easy to remember. They can both stay here while we get a room. C’mon. Let’s check in.” Sarah flicked on sunglasses. At least her bossiness showed she was feeling better.

Dani glanced at Grace. “You are all right waiting?”

Grace settled back. “I’m fine. What am I missing? Our fourth shitty motel lobby, or our fifth one?”

“Welcome to my life,” Sarah muttered.

Dani followed Sarah past some potted cacti, into a spacious, cool lobby. Terracotta tiles set off coral and turquoise walls, Southwestern art, maps. A stand of brochures, promising all of New Mexico's enchantments, flanked shelves that said _Book Crossing_ _– Leave One, Take One._ Next to an upscale vending machine was a sign about complimentary breakfast. Dani smiled, imagining how Grace would impact both of those. “This place is nice,” she half-whispered.

Sarah snorted. “There’s always something. We’ll find out what.”

Behind the counter, two receptionists smiled brightly. Sure enough, they asked, then told. “Most folks are here for the dark sky reserve! We’re right on the reserve’s border. You can borrow a telescope if you want, or there’s tours, or…”

In their suite, Dani thought, this once, Sarah’s skepticism wasn’t called for. The suite was fresh and immaculate. There was a private mini-patio, another shelf of take-or-leave books. Sarah claimed the side room, leaving a king bed for Dani and Grace in the main area.

Grace grudgingly approved, following Dani out as she explored the patio. “So what’s the Dark Sky program? Another version of Legion?”

Dani was pleased to say, “The opposite. They said it meant that there was no ‘light pollution’. Less technology, not more, to keep the stars clear for us to see.” Grace looked up, and stayed looking. Beneath those stars, Dani tilted her face up to Grace, expecting a kiss from her lover. Which she got, but it felt distracted.

Dani joined Grace in gazing up. The stars truly were piercingly sharp. The Milky Way was clear and deep across the heavens, varied, layered, luminous. There was no moon. Grace said, “We didn’t have a sky like this in my time. It was all clouded. This is…” She lifted a hand, let it fall: went silent for a full minute.

Finally, Dani said, “It is beautiful. Should I get a telescope from the reception?”

“I don’t need one. With my Augmentations, I can see. And see…”

Beside her, Dani enjoyed the view for a few more minutes. The more she looked, the more layers the night revealed. Occasionally, Grace twitched or touched the air, fine-tuning herself. Dani asked again, “What are you looking at now?”

“Satellites. That one has a flag I don’t recognize… that’s an asteroid, I think…I’ve never needed this database before…that’s Jupiter… a nebula…” Grace’s voice was gentle with amazement. “It’s expanding. This cloud of light…”

Dani shifted again on the concrete. It was chilly, this desert night. She’d had enough stars. Inside, by the standards of motel living, they had some privacy. Dani knew that a touch and a word would bring Grace back to earth. Yet… what had she seen Grace enjoy in this time? What had Grace’s augmentations brought her, besides power and pain? 

She stepped away. “You enjoy, _querida._ I will go inside and see how Sarah is.”

Grace closed her eyes and leaned over for another kiss, a quick, crushing embrace. By the time Dani closed the door, she was lost to the stars again.

Inside, the temperature was just right. Dani blinked, getting used to light. To letting Grace go, this way: not into death but into a part of life that wasn’t her. She had better get used to it. If – when – this time with Grace ended, Judgement Day came, another time with Grace began, it would all be different. It would have to be. Dani paused, weighing that. Then she went to find the woman who would understand, if anybody could.

Dani saw Sarah had closed the door to ‘her’ room. She knocked. “Al hecho, lo pecho?”

“We need a new pass phrase,” Sarah grumbled. Dani went in.

Sarah was folded up on her bed, the sling back in place over an extra shirt. With her free hand, she was setting a rifle down beside her, next to a thick book. “Where’s your other half?”

“She is looking at the stars for a time. With her augmenations, she sees them all. I think she will be a while.”

“M-hm.” Sarah said, “I found out what’s wrong with this place. It’s owned by Mormons. The minibar has Latter-Day Saints brochures instead of liquor.”

Dani had to laugh. Perching on the edge of the bed, she said, “You found a book you like?”

Sarah picked up the book. “From when I was younger than you. _Shōgun._” She tilted the book’s spine so Dani could see it. “A man goes to a place he never imagined, meets strangers, goes through shit.”

Dani said, “Like you. You left the States and had your son and became a fighter to teach him how to be a soldier, all those different countries.”

Sarah said, “Yeah, life showed me.”

“You went to college once…” _But you don’t talk about it,_ Dani thought.

Sarah didn’t now. “Mmmnh. English. I was going to…never mind.” Dani ached, hearing her own future silence in that. “ _Shōgun_ holds up. Politics, people being assholes. Terrible shit happens. Helped me get ready when real shit went down, I guess.” Sarah folded over a page corner, closed the book. “It’s a good place to stop. In the story, the warlord Toranaga has arrived. He’ll meet the pilot Blackthorne, and everything will change.”

“Like when we met.” Dani peered at the cover. “I should read more, yes?”

“When we’re settled. There’s better shit for you to read than this. Ever hear of Jean Auel? _Clan of the Cave Bear?_ ” After a beat, Sarah smiled, wickedly. “I’m kidding. Mostly.”

This was Sarah at her best, sly, rueful, knowing. Dani edged closer. In this warm-lit room, over the plaid flannel shirt she wore, Sarah’s eyes were greenish, penetrating. Dani asked, _“Podemos hablar mi lengua?”_

Sarah said, _“Si quieres.”_

It was a little bit of home, to speak in Spanish. Dani said, _“How are you? You don’t have to close yourself away.”_

 _“I think Grace feels otherwise. I need a break, too, from people all day. Yes, I’m an asshole.”_ Sarah added, _“Remember, I was alone for years.”_

 _“I wouldn’t like that,”_ Dani said. _“Being alone.”_

 _“You don’t have to be.”_ Sarah shifted, angling her shoulder for Dani. Dani nestled up against her. Sarah exhaled, on the edge of a laugh. “ _What did you call this, the other day? How you and I and Grace fuck around…”_

 _“Polyamory,”_ Dani said. In her old life, that had been a trend seen online. After so much loss, every moment freighted with life or death, it felt right.

_“When I was your age it was ‘free love.’ Left over from the hippies. God, I’m old.”_

Sometimes, Dani’s age difference with Sarah felt like nothing. With Sarah’s smoky voice in her ear, her shoulder firm under Dani’s cheek, it was something. In a good way. Dani tilted her face up, brushed back Sarah's thick silver hair, and kissed the edge of her jaw.

Sarah said, _“Is that how it is?”_ Dani felt shy, suddenly. It was easier to kiss Sarah again than to talk.

Sarah turned out the light to kiss Dani back.

The darkness was startling. So was Sarah’s body, after Grace’s height and metal. She fit against Dani neatly. Her skin, her taste, were normal, warm and human. Dani let herself fall back against the pillows. Sarah, with one thigh between Dani’s legs, slid on top to kiss Dani more deeply. Her narrow-flanked weight was easy to bear. After a moment, they were side by side again.

Sarah ran her free hand down Dani’s back. “ _I do like a bite of you to myself now and then.”_ She grabbed a firm handful of Dani’s ass. _“Still a virgin here?”_

Dani smacked Sarah’s good shoulder, playfully. _“Oh my God! You’re terrible!”_

_“So? Are you? Despite Grace?”_

Dani giggled. _“Yes. Grace is terrible, too. After having her body filled with metal, she has no boundaries.”_

 _“Your poor damn soldier.”_ Sarah whispered in Dani’s ear. _“Let her. Even only once. Have it on your terms, before someone takes it from you.”_

“Sarah…” Dani turned in Sarah’s half-embrace. She knew why Sarah said that, ached to show compassion in a way Sarah would accept. She took too long.

 _“I know. I ruin everything.”_ Sarah drew away. _“It is the one thing about the Terminators: they don’t rape.”_

Dani chased her across the coverlet, wrapped both her arms around Sarah’s ribcage. She admitted, _“The way the Terminators want to kill …it seems close to that. Because it is everything to them.”_

Sarah leaned back into her. _“True. Also, there’s the way Carl mindfucked me. I’ll always be pissed about that.”_ Dani felt Sarah tense, spine stiffening.

Dani slid a caressing hand beneath the sling, over Sarah’s low-slung breasts, brushing Sarah’s heart. It was so much easier to open up in the dark, like Sarah was. _“You say terrible things because you don’t want me hurt.”_

That got Dani kissed again, rough and abrupt. _“The way I am about you…”_ Sarah was quiet for a moment. _“It takes me back to the mercenaries who taught me what I know. About fighting, and drinking, and fucking. I can’t say they took advantage when I was offering. But when I see you – feel you – I know that they did. Because of how I want you.”_ Dani felt Sarah’s tough fingers hook against her crotch.

 _“I tell myself I want you to survive, do the future shit. But then there is power. Liquor’s one thing, but power – a gun in my hands, knowing shit, being right,”_ Sarah gave her fingers a little shake. _“That addicts.”_

Sarah was stroking Dani now, firm, brief touches, teasing through the denim. As Dani parted her legs for it, Sarah said, _“Terminators and time took power from me. You give some of it back. I don’t know if that’s good.”_

More terrible, honest things. Dani slid her hand over Sarah’s, to press Sarah’s fingers into her. _“I feel like you give it to me. What you say. What you know. I don’t have to know everything with you. Though Grace thinks I should.”_

Sarah made a pleased noise. _“Pretty girl. If my shoulder wasn’t torn up…take a few clothes off and I’ll show you what this old bitch has tonight.”_

 _“You’re not a bitch,”_ Dani said, sliding off her shirt.

 _“Yes I am. A complete bitch. A filthy old woman. I’ll prove it, too.”_ When Dani had her jeans off, Sarah touched her arm, stopping her. _“Leave your panties on.”_

When Dani did, Sarah cupped her left hand between Dani’s legs, pressing with her fingertips through the cotton. Dani jolted. _“You’re sensitive. Because of Grace fucking you all the time?”_

The idea, Sarah knowing it, made Dani squirm in exquisite embarrassment. _“Yes…”_

 _“Here, too?”_ Sarah lifted that one hand, brushed Dani’s hard nipples. When Dani didn’t say anything, Sarah tweaked. As Dani gasped, Sarah said, _“There’s my answer. I don’t blame her. You’re irresistible. Hot little bitch.”_ Sarah sent her hand down again, rolling two knuckles right over Dani’s clit – still, maddeningly, on top of the fabric. _“You want me to make you come?”_

It was one thing to make love. Talking about it, especially in Spanish, drew it out, made Dani ache for it. _“Yes.“_

Sarah slid downwards. Dani shifted, opening her thighs. Sarah had only one hand to use right now, and Dani knew what she was going to do. Yet Sarah didn’t do it like she expected.

First, Sarah didn’t take her panties off at all. Dani thought she might, the way Sarah caressed her with her left hand. Leaned down and rested her face there for a moment, gave her, on top of the fabric, a kiss. _“You’re so wet,”_ Sarah said. She didn’t reach for the upper hem to pull down, but for the narrow crotch, sliding it aside. This done, Sarah kept sliding, sending one finger inside Dani. _“Tight, also. You’ll feel this.”_

Dani jerked. It was only one finger, circling, teasing. Somehow it was wicked when Sarah did it, so slow and gentle Dani worried she’d stop. _“Please – “_

 _“Young people. Always in a hurry.”_ Sarah slid down the bed further, between Dani’s legs. _“Move up, if you need it.”_ Dani did, half-sitting up against the pillows. That tightened everything inside her, more. Just as Dani whimpered, Sarah really settled down, lowered her face, and began to mouth Dani, still working that one finger.

The only sign that Sarah was, by her standards, new to other women were her pauses: indrawn breaths, curses of arousal. Each time, when she returned, Dani slipped lower, more and more turned on. _“Oh. Oh! Sarah – so good– “_

_“Grace made me learn.”_

_“Really?”_

_“I could tell you or I could eat you out and, honey, your cunt wins.”_ Sarah slid a second finger in, then mouthed Dani more. Dani felt herself filled and pulled and soothed, all at once. Her voice shut down for short hard breaths, between laughing and crying. Darkness, hunger, need - Dani gave herself up to it all. And came.

She was still breathing hard when Sarah hauled herself back up the bed. Dani reached for her, undoing buttons, sliding inside Sarah’s flannel shirt, under the tank top beneath. _“Do you want?”_

Sarah surprised her by stilling her hand. _“This is good. Just this. My goddamned hip still hurts, and I don’t like half-measures. I do like getting my hands on you.”_ There was satisfaction in her voice, in the weight of her arm, settling around Dani once more.

Dani nestled in, venting a final sigh. This was how it would’ve been if it was only her and Sarah. Sweet and easy and sad. For, with their age difference, Dani knew she’d be letting Sarah go, too, sometime.

Suddenly, the room was brighter. Dani blinked. The door, opened a crack, framed Grace’s trim height. “Hey,” Grace said. “Al hay-pro lo pesco.”

Sarah snorted. _“That’s Grace all right. Nobody gets it wrong like her.”_

Dani said, in Sarah’s ear, _“She can come in, yes?”_

Sarah’s answer was to call, brusquely, “Come in. Leave the damn lights off, though.” With that, she backed off. Dani felt a pang for that sweet, restful space with her, dispelled now. Five seconds later, the bed rocked. Grace had flung herself down between them.

Sarah snapped, “Jesus fucking Christ, you’re freezing. A goddamn ice cube. How? You’re supposed to overheat all the time, not turn into a fucking Otter Pop.”

Grace said, “Otter _what?_ It’s above freezing out there. Summer.”

“Desert summer will kill you, day or night.”

Grace turned to Dani. “Are you warm enough?”

A soft bundle of flannel landed on Dani. It was Sarah’s shirt. “Put that on so one of us doesn’t freeze to death.”

Why was Dani making herself so sad, when both these women were alive right now to make her crazy? Dani elbowed Grace. “Move over. I will be the center.” She took the flannel shirt with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some language notes:  
>  _Al hecho, lo pecho_ = Face up to it, take it to the chest.  
>  _Podemos hablar mi lengua_ = Can we speak my language?  
>  _Si quieres_ = If you want  
> Dialogue in italics is in translated Spanish.
> 
> Dark sky reserves are marvelous - [see more here.](https://www.darksky.org/new-mexico-blazing-a-dark-sky-trail/)


	4. radio signal detected (e!, grace/dani)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grace deals with all the irritations of living in the past: radio signals, Sarah, crowds, and Dani being hot enough to ping every alert. Explicit femslash, Grace/Dani.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter specific notes/warnings: explicit sexual activity including body worship, rimming, fingering, and cunnilingus.

Grace doesn’t want to say that she’s malfunctioning. So she doesn’t.

It’s not even that she’s working wrong. After what she’s survived, Grace is lucky her Augments are, according to readouts, at 94%. She made it through the agony of the time-gate. Survived two nations’ police forces. Fought a Rev-9 three times. Had her power source torn out, survived on a temporary hook-up, been cut open again for a new power source.

Along the way, her rebooting had bounced all her Augments back to their original settings. In the future, Augments like Grace hacked themselves, for good reasons. Grace is feeling that now. Because she has lost the hack that let her turn Augment notifications off with a simple finger press. And the town they’ve driven into is sending the notifications wild.

_(RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED 26.965 MHz_

_RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED 156.800 FM_

_RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED 4.022 MHz_

_RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED 154.90500 FMN_

_Absolutely constantly, fuck ---)_

In Grace’s future-time, the airwaves belonged to the Machines, were the first territory they’d claimed. A radio signal was either a Machine or an ally booting up for a brief burst of comms. Either way, the signal was a rarity, detecting it was a lifesaver. Here in the past, the airwaves belong to humans, every last frequency. Grace has he treacherous thought that she understands why Legion’s first act was to boot humans off the air. 

Dani is driving their vehicle. Sarah, also up front, is talking. Grace forces herself to block out the notifications and focus. “So the plan is we check in somewhere here, meet up with Major Dean tomorrow. Or maybe we don’t because tomorrow is the goddamn Fourth of July, and we meet the day after. No idea what it’s about.” 

Grace cracks. “What is this place? I’m…picking up a lot of signals.”

Sarah turns back to her with a bitter smile. “Los Alamos. Spook central since 1943. By which I mean, lots of spies and military intelligence. The only reason I’m putting up with Dean jerking me around is that we seriously owe…”

Sarah has her moments, but Grace can barely cope with her right now. Her rough-edged tone, alone, is triggering more alerts. Grace seriously considers stupefying herself with some extra benzos. That won’t stop the alerts, but Grace won’t care about them, or much of anything. However, Dani is driving. That makes Dani vulnerable. Dani comes first. Always.

“Here! I will try here,” Dani declares, turning their vehicle in.

Sarah yelps, “Shit. Indicate! Signal when you turn!” Grace rolls her eyes. Considering that Dani’s only been driving on these rule-tight roads for three weeks, she’s amazing. Grace is still angry that Sarah considers Grace’s driving ‘trying to get us arrested.’ It’s hard for Grace to care about road rules. Soon, they won't matter.

Dani pulls into the motel’s last parking space. The place looks dull, blocky. Grace hopes for insulation, metal wall panels, a solid Wi-Fi signal to override other frequencies. Anything to block -

 _(RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED 444.77500_ _FM_

_RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED 151.00250000 PW_

_to Grace_ ' _s right, VIGIL STATE > 4 HOURS. BREAK NOW. The kind of thing they_' _d all ignored)_

Sarah goes to see about a room. Dani goes with Sarah and that’s tolerable. One or the other of them should guard Dani for the rest of their lives. Grace taps a pinkie to up her listening volume and hears:

“It’s our last room. You’re lucky we had a cancellation. You here for the convention?”

“The convention,” Sarah repeats, pleasant and empty.

“The preppers’ convention. Just go through the alley behind the parking lot, it’s on the other side.”

Sarah and Dani return to retrieve Grace and their other luggage. Dani is asking Sarah, “What are preppers?”

Sarah flings the trunk open. “We used to call them survivalists. Preppers say the same thing Carl did: that human civilization is on the way out. Like Carl, they’re getting ready to fight it out when that happens. I’d like to think they’re ahead of the game. But let me tell you about something else, called the Darwin Awards…”

As Sarah growls, Grace wrestles down her annoyance. Sarah is necessary: the intelligencer, armorer, quartermaster for their squad of three. Grace knows she scratches against Sarah because they’re so alike. Seeing threats everywhere. Knowing what’s going to come, honing themselves for it. Being resented for that by this time’s men. The physical and mental pain of surviving. Adoring Dani.

Dani listens to Sarah with a thoughtful tilt of her head. Grace bites her lips on a sigh. She’s been around past!Dani for close to fifty days. Already, the combination of survival and Sarah have shaped Dani. Firming her up from a ravishing innocent to something like the future’s Commander. She’ll be wise, decisive, sad, more human than anybody else. Still ravishing.

With the Rev-9 downed, mission accomplished, Grace knows she’s a six-foot-two, two-sixty-seven-pound problem for them. Tall, conspicuous, chained by her needs, endlessly hungry. For Dani, in particular. After Sarah and Dani take a bag each, Grace grabs the rest of their luggage, four duffels of weapons and ammo.

 _(to Grace'_ _s left, CW 248.94 KG, AVAIL 752.06 KG, STRESS = 2)_

They all frown together at the gray room with its parking-lot view. There is only one bed. Dani says what she always does. “It is better than the first place we stayed at in Mexico.”

_(Grace's eyes double-dilate, readings coming up, light levels, vision variables)_

Sarah declares, “Not by much. Dean won’t confirm ‘till the last minute. We’ll get stuck here a while. You’ll see.” She dumps her bag, keeps her sunglasses on. “Let’s go check out the Darwin Awards contenders. Sleeves, Grace. You don’t want preppers drooling on your scars.” Grace yanks a denim jacket out of a duffel, gets ready to sweat.

( _RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED_ _151.00250000 PW_

 _RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED 444.77500_ _FM_ _)_

Together, they lace back through the alley, onto a more prosperous block, in front of a long, low hotel. There are signs, both written and human: past people dressing like their idea of human survivors. Their clean shirts and fleshy bodies mock Grace’s thin, hard future. But they’re already crowding, swarming like they’re penned together in a safe base. Or a prison camp.

 _(green grids over Grace’_ _s full field of vision, her combat overlay, dialed to the max)_

Sarah, watching them, has gone calm. “Look at them. They’re trying.” 

Grace and Dani exchange a look. Dani whispers, “They’re all really white.”

Sarah doesn’t catch this. She’s been missing sounds since the explosions around their most recent Terminator attack. Grace hasn’t pressed her on it yet. Frankly, it suits her. Provides a little privacy in this tight wandering life they have right now. Grace is covering it. But she’ll need to have it out with Sarah soon. Grace glares at Sarah, willing the older woman to admit she needs help before that argument. Grace admits it twice a day, dosing up with the drugs that keep her muscles and metal on speaking terms.

 _(combat overlay_ ' _s left side: VEHICLE ALERT, HUMANS AG, WARNING, REC: DEFENSE)_

The combat overlay, the green of life, is Grace’s best friend. When it’s active, her hearing and vision fine-tune automatically. Reading it is second nature to her. It’s saved her life and Dani’s twelve times in this time alone. She forgives its maximum display, more detail than she needs. The minimized version is another hack that’s gone missing.

 _(combat overlay’_ _s left side, flashing: MECH(?) ALERT 69%PROB **REV-7 EXO** , DANGER, REC: RECON)_

Willing herself to move slowly, normally, Grace turns. A Rev-7’s ravaging is why Grace became an Augment. She’s cold with horror at the idea of Dani – this Dani, any Dani – attacked by one. But Dani and Sarah are both stepping forward without fear, because the quadruped the Augments sense isn’t a Rev-7 exoform. It’s a big dog on a leash.

 _“_ _Que linda,_ _”_ Dani breathes.

Sarah smiles like she does maybe once a week, a real, relaxed smile. “A German Shepherd. Gorgeous. I had a dog like her for a while.”

The owner, another woman, overhears this and stops. “Can’t go wrong with a dog for protection!”

When the dog sniffs Dani’s outheld hand, Dani lights up with delight. Grace nudges one eyelid. One Augment captures what Grace sees, Dani’s smiling profile. It flickers, aligns in a brief grid of a hundred Danis. The future!Dani images have some data degradation, softening them, bringing them closer to this radiant present. Another nudge, and they all vanish.

Suddenly, the dog jerks back. Grace sees the dog sniff deeper, glance around. For an instant, the animal’s golden eyes meet Grace’s. Ears flattening back, teeth flashing, the dog snarls, then starts barking. 

“Sorry,” the owner says, and, “Down, girl – HEY!” The dog’s noises escalate into a near howl. Other people are starting to frown, lift their phones. Humans and dogs have been friends for ten thousand years. They’ll stay friends after Judgement Day. Humans and machines – that was going to come to an end pretty soon.

 _(to Grace'_ _s left, an icon, REQUEST UPLIFT Y/N: no use her sending it an eye flick, no-one will receive it)_

Sarah steps back. “C’mon.” Grace accepts this uplift, lets Sarah steer her away. Dani stares back for a wistful moment, then dashes after them.

When they’re a safe hundred yards away, Sarah stops them. Grace sighs to herself, drags out another future fact she’d hoped to never need. “Dogs hate Terminators.”

Dani says, “Carl had a dog.”

“Carl had a wife as well. Doesn’t mean any of them were right in the head,” says Sarah.

“If I can finish?” Grace huffs. “Dogs don’t need to be trained to hate or find Terminators, either. They simply do. The catch is that they hate Augments too. We’re just wrong to them.” It’s clear that this has never occurred to Dani. Grace’s chest feels heavy. “Squads had dogs or Augments. Never both. You saw why.”

Sarah takes it in stride. “No walks in the park for you, then.”

“I guess not.” They all pause, awkwardly.

( _RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED_ _151.00250000 PW_

 _RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED 444.77500_ _FM_

 _Grace holds back from pinching, blinking, swiping, gestures that should access settings but haven_ 't _worked_ _)_

Sarah turns back, facing the motel, the preppers. “How about I check this out, come back at 18:00 hours? You two okay on your own?”

Dani revives. “We will be.” With a smile, she elbows Sarah, says something sweet-sounding in Spanish.

Grace says, “Fine.” No driving’s involved. Sarah will come back with smoke and alcohol on her breath. Right now, Grace could care less. If it gets Grace two hours alone with Dani, Sarah can go cut somebody’s throat to amuse herself. She needs this like she needs her meds.

Sarah heads off. Dani waits. “I want to see her go in. All right?” Grace nods, holds back from saying _yes ma_ _’_ _am._ They watch as Sarah cuts through the milling preppers, head down, not a movement wasted. At a distance, Grace can appreciate her. She’s a future soul in one of the sleek-haired, pure-skinned past-bodies. Then Dani touches Grace’s elbow, and they go, over hot asphalt, through more _RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED_ alerts.

Back at the motel, being safe feels unreal. Grace yanks the synthetic curtains shut. Dani falls against her. Grace holds her, Dani’s dark head pressed to Grace’s heart, until the combat overlay shuts down. When it does, Grace kisses the top of Dani’s head, inhales her hair, damp with sweat.

Dani slides away. “With Sarah not here, I can have the first shower.” She looks up, eyes huge and liquid, eyeliner smudged. “Join me?”

This time, Grace lets herself say, “Yes, ma’am.”

The motel room’s bathroom is windowless, heavily tiled in gray. The fan wheezes. After sniffing the chemical pink soap, Dani goes and gets different soap out of her bag. The towels smell like bleach. Grace loves it all immediately. In here, _RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED_ shuts down for the first time in two days. Better yet, when Dani returns, she’s naked.

Grace strips herself, admiring Dani’s turns and pouts while she adjusts the shower temperature. By the time Grace had sought the time-gate, Dani had shielded her beauty inside her. Grace had loved that Dani, her strength and thoughtfulness, her spark of life and luck. She had been the best person in Grace’s world. To see Dani like this, beautiful skin unmarred, curves tight and firm, eyes clear with pleasure, is unreal. Heavenly. Like Dani is safe enough, here and now, for her soul to light up her body.

Dani steps into the shower. “It is nice, now.” She holds out an arm, glittering with water drops. Grace joins her eagerly. The water is soft, warm. There’s no demerit for lingering as long as they want. Dani laughs when Grace lowers her height under the shower, scouring her hair quickly. Dani takes longer to clean herself, teasingly thorough. Seeing her tawny glow through a veil of iridescent bubbles, Grace, surrounded by water, thirsts.

 _(other notifications still ping: to Grace's_ _right, MINIMIZE WATER EXPOSURE)_

Grace wants to ignore that, but it makes her stiffen. Maybe it’s why Dani brings their shower to an end. The towels are stupidly small for Grace, but they wrap Dani perfectly, from just above her nipples to below the curve of her ass. Grace kneels down and, swallowing, half-unwraps Dani. “Let me dry you.”

She does, slowly, burnishing Dani’s limbs, dropping kisses here and there. On Dani’s forearms, dark with suntan after driving: on the wet, tender curve of her thigh: on the scar that nicks Dani’s left cheek. It’s at that kiss that Dani captures Grace, draws their mouths together. Grace falls in with this unspoken command gladly, so gladly. They taste each other, Grace listening to Dani’s beating heart. This is what she’s needed.

 _(half-combat grid, Dani's_ _movements highlighted, heat map overlaying her, HUMAN, AR = 7, PS = 8, REC: MAKE PURPOSE KNOWN)_

Grace says, “Let’s do it right here.”

Dani squints. “In this lighting?”

Hungry for relief without RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED, Grace pleads, “You’re beautiful anywhere. I need you now. Please.” She takes the towel she’s been using, folds it into a neat pad, drapes it on the counter.

Dani shakes her head, smiling. “Sometimes you’re crazy…”

When Grace goes to pick Dani up and place her there, Dani stops her. “I want to try something.” Gracefully, she bends over, draping her torso across the towel. As she does, pressing on the counter, her waist slims, her hips spread. “Our first night, I said no to something.” Grace remembers. This Dani was shocked when Grace went for her backside. But she’s starting the future with what she says. “Now…I want to try, just a little.”

Grace can see herself in the mirror behind the sink. She’s blushing down to her scarred solar plexus, raw-boned and looming over Dani’s perfection. She has to lean down to cup the flesh of Dani’s ass, her hands wide enough to grip each set of curves. “Anything,” Grace says.

_(sensing fear, excitement, the combat overlay dials to its maximum yet again)_

Dropping to her knees, Grace closes her eyes. The combat overlay persists, as if she fought in the dark, green contour lines making Dani’s curves a debated territory. Blind and sparked, Grace bites, kisses, nibbles. She feels Dani’s resilient warmth, hears her adorable sounds. 

When Grace buries her face in the most debated territory of all, Dani’s deep, delicious back cleft, Dani cries out. She bats Grace with one foot, lifted in astonishment. Combat stats light Grace’s vision. She pays no mind, having won this fight when Dani asked her to do this. Victory, tasting this new zone of tender flesh, is heaven. When Grace’s mouth goes dry from the taste of soap (Dani was thorough) she pulls back, slides one finger to press.

By now, Dani is squirming against the counter. “Okay...I...I feel that a lot…”

Grace says, softly, “I can stop. Anything you want.” She’s saved her right hand to reach up, drawing Dani’s hips out from the counter, stroking her between her legs. She’s reassured to find Dani so wet. 

Grace stands up, reeling between green flickers and Dani’s arousal. She picks Dani up by her hips, turns her around, sits her down. Sitting on the counter, with Grace standing between her spread legs, Dani’s face is between Grace’s bare breasts. Like the tactician she is, Dani takes advantage of that. It’s her turn to lavish Grace with licks and kisses. Grace lets her until the flicker of the damn combat stats overrides the sensations. She asks, “Can I fuck you?”

“Yes! Please!”

Grace returns to known territory, taking Dani with her right hand’s fingers. Standing like this, with Dani on the counter, Grace’s hand is at the level of her own crotch. This angle is fantastic, letting Grace shift her hips and her right arm together. Taking Dani, she aches with raw joy.

_(her combat overlay illuminates Dani's body with contours and stats, her medical sidebar flicks to life)_

Dani comes first. And second. After the second time, glowing and gorgeous, Dani wraps her legs around Grace’s thighs. She purrs and opens her eyes. “We should get you a strap.”

Grace says, “What?”

“A strap on. Do you know –”

“Yeah, I know!”

_(her combat overlay, stats soaring, her medical sidebar, CARDIAC ALERT)_

After the five minutes of frenzy that follow, Dani is gasping, “Enough. Your time.” It’s Grace’s turn up against the bathroom counter. She’s so turned on it’s painful. When Dani goes to kneel, Grace tosses all the towels on the floor to pad it for Dani.

Dani’s mouth on her is everything, when Grace doesn’t need much. All Dani has to do right now is breathe on Grace’s aching crotch. Instead, Dani lavishes Grace, giving her all, as she always does for everything. Grace finds herself perched on the counter. She comes so hard, the notifications stutter and blink out for a moment.

Afterwards, they indulge in a second shower.

 _(her medical sidebar, MEDS DUE, one Grace doesn_ _’t ignore)_

Grace keeps it short after that, only taking time to wrap Dani in the freshest towel. Dani is the one who hangs the other towels back up. Grace is a little disappointed. After a day of being annoyed by Sarah, she would have liked hearing Sarah yelp about that, seeing Sarah’s jealous glare.

When they leave the bathroom, sure enough, _RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED_ flashes four times. Grace has three other signals going that she can shut up. She drinks some water, doses up. She should eat something, but Dani is sitting up in bed, clearly waiting. Grace goes to her. She will let her stomach eat itself and the medical sidebar turn crimson as long as Dani wants her there.

There will be three of them in the one room, that night. How well that goes will depend on Sarah. Sarah sleeps like shit, up late or incredibly early, restless either way. Here and now, Dani curls herself just so against Grace’s shoulder. As if she reads Grace’s mind, she says, “When we get to Sarah’s cabin, it will be different. Better. Sarah says it has more privacy.”

“Good.”

“I am glad we are all getting along. Mostly.” Lips against Grace’s neck, Dani says, “I wanted this. A rest with you. But I should have gone with Sarah. I need to keep learning.”

Grace wraps both arms around Dani, thinking of the hard schooling Dani has ahead. “I’ll love you and protect you. As long as I can.”

At that, Dani sends a caress from over Grace’s heart to her left side: the livid scar where Dani had cut Grace open twice. Small and sad, she says, “No matter what happens, I will love you forever.”

Grace hears herself admit, “I never expected to see it happen again.”

Dani feels heavier in Grace’s arms. She asks, “What if it does not? Like Sarah and her Judgement Day?”

Grace opens her mouth on silence, shakes her head. It would be a life she’d never imagined. Marooned in time, like the infiltrator gone rogue, ‘Carl’. “There’s still what Carl said. About the 76% chance.”

Dani knows what she means. Incredibly, she laughs, once, cheered. Grace feels her warmth as she says, “Without Terminators! If that happens, _querida,_ we will help people anyway.”

Grace would endure another notification if she could snap the way this moment feels, the hope and strength and soul in in her arms, the best woman in her world -

_RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED 4.022 MHz_

Grace could scream. But right then there’s a patterned bang on the door, the lock clicking open. Sarah strides in, spitting out one of the Spanish phrases she and Dani share. Grace misses it, her Augments checking stats. This is the real Sarah. Grace is relieved, about that, about having somebody besides herself shatter the moment.

Sarah’s either at the euphoric stage of being drunk or she’s gotten into, and out of, trouble. “That was a fucking trip. I brought presents.” With that, she chucks a bagful of small items over Grace and Dani in bed.

 _(green grids over Grace'_ _s full field of vision, her combat overlay, dialed to the max)_

Grace takes her hands away from Dani’s face when the cascade is done. She’d stand up and yell at Sarah, except most of the stuff is small packages of food. Grace rips into one (BUFFALO CRANBERRY), then another (FREEZE-DRIED ICE CREAM). They're insanely delicious, like most food in this time.

 _(her medical sidebar showing every calorie she'_ _s cramming in)_

Dani pokes at the non-food items, small tools and pouches. She lifts something blue and examines it. “That’s a paracord bracelet. Unwrap it for a tough little rope.”

As Grace finishes a third crunchy package (RAMEN) Sarah adds, “Normal people add hot water to that one. Never saw so much shitty freeze-dried food in my life. Kill and eat me before you get into that stuff.”

Grace opens her mouth to say something and stops. She’s been honest enough for one day.

Sarah goes on. “I’m crazy, but those people are fucking insane. Makes me feel like I've got company.”

Dani looks at Grace. “That is very true.” Dani slides the paracord bracelet onto Grace’s right wrist, then slips a finger between the cord and Grace. Like Dani is claiming her.

Grace sighs and presses her eyes shut, hard, and swallows and –

That does it. _RADIO SIGNAL DETECTED_ shuts down.

Grace inhales lightly. Opens her eyes. “I’m here for it.”


	5. power exchange (e! grace/sarah)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An add-on to _Fate Throws a Dagger_ : a scene mentioned in passing - Grace wins a shooting match and takes Sarah down hard. Explicit femslash, Grace/Sarah. Read the chapter warnings!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter specific notes/warnings: Femdom, rough sex, cunninlingus, fingering, a little blood and a lot of dark tension in that Terminator PSTD way. If you've wanted a clashing borderline-hatesex encounter between Grace and Sarah, here you go...

Sarah was used to killing time.

She’d had years, alone, to perfect the art of waiting. Whittling, playing solitaire, cleaning weapons. Re-reading books that, unlike her life, held no suprises. Drawing out drinking sessions. On sleepless nights, watching sunsets, motel walls, sunrises.

Dani and Grace were not.

Trying to have a quiet evening together in a motel room, not under attack, nobody injured, brought that out. Dani had spent her entire life being active. Learning, earning, doing. Like a normal young person. But she’d done it all on the grid, perpetually connected to the ‘Net. Even watching a TV show, Dani wanted to discuss it. Her companions were a bad audience for that.

Grace had spent her life from ten onwards surviving. If being a postapocalyptic soldier had given her any inner resources, she didn’t want to use them. She’d check the same things Sarah did – and check them all again, five hypervigilant minutes later. More, Grace loathed most television. Sarah agreed with Grace that its noise could cover a watcher. Or an attack. 

Sarah thought teaching them poker was worth a try. Some macho idiot was bound to challenge Dani this way in the future. The game had tactics. Dani could try and still her expressive features for a poker face. Grace relished the chance to beat Sarah at something.

It seemed to be going all right, too. Until Sarah dealt their fourth round. Grace watched like a hawk, then stood abruptly, snatching the deck from Sarah’s hands. “These cards are marked!”

“What?” said Dani.

Grace stabbed a finger at the back of one card, covered with intricate scrolling. “Right there. And there.” Once she knew to look, Dani gasped, tapping each card’s tiny scrape.

Sarah smacked her hand down. “They’re _my_ cards. ’Course they’re marked. Check your damn hands. You’ll see the marks don’t line up with the cards you’ve got. ” Sarah couldn’t resist adding, “Besides, neither of you are good enough for me to need to cheat.”

“Sarah!” Dani said.

“What? It’s true. I’ve thrown two hands so far.”

Grace was outraged. “You’ve been losing on purpose? Like we’re kids?”

“I thought we were having fun,” Dani said, crestfallen.

“There is no – “ Sarah began, but Grace was talking over her, saying, “Nothing is –“ They glared at each other. It was one of those moments when they were saying the same thing, hating each other for it.

Sarah decided to let Grace take the point on this. Grace had started it. “I’m gonna smoke. If you want more rounds when I’m back, one of you deal.” She dropped the cards in front of Dani, left their motel room for the New Mexico night.

The day had been so hot that the cinderblock wall, outside, still radiated heat. Beside it, Sarah lit up to sulk. Goddamn it to fucking hell. She’d tried to do good, play nice – to _play_ , for once, not have everything be life or death. This was what she got for trying to be better than she was.

Grace was restless, to catch the marks. Her crystal-blue eyes, across the formica coffee table, had burned into Sarah. When Grace watched a woman’s every move, it meant something.

Sarah leaned back against warm cinderblock. Remembering what it had led to, last time Grace watched her. And what Sarah kept unsaid about that. Something that made ‘better’ a pretty low bar, for her.

* * *

It had started with an idle gamble.

A few weeks back, they had been holed up at Carl’s old place. Grace had been about to get a new power source. The catch was that this would involve gutting Grace. Again. Waiting for Dani to say they were ready, Grace was a mess. Hooked up to a car battery, veering between cranky and silent, staring down her own death once more.

Sarah thought Grace had a few screws loose to invite Sarah to get it on with her and Dani. Not that Sarah had turned them down – she wasn’t stupid. After that, Dani had asked Sarah to keep Grace upbeat and occupied for an afternoon. Sarah’s remedy had been target practice using Carl’s armory. When Grace had tried to get some mojo back by flirting, Sarah had raised the stakes. Best out of fifty shots, winner to take all – in sex from the loser.

Sarah should have had the advantage. She’d been practicing: Grace hadn’t. Grace was running on low power and high stress. Sarah hadn’t told the Augmented supersoldier to not use her cyborg whatever. They’d both been shooting clear until their last round.

A recoil fluke made Sarah’s last shot suck. She winced as the bullet clipped a target edge. Stepping away, she frowned. Grace’s blue gaze was on her, hot and heavy. Sarah watched in turn as Grace took her place, raising the heavier gun she’d chosen. Was Grace’s last round going to be flawless?

It was.

Grace clicked on her weapon’s safety. “Looks like you owe me.”

Sarah exhaled, grimly. “When I make a deal, I’m good for it.”

“Winner take all, we agreed. Follow me.” Hawkish, a little crazy, sparked back to life, Grace threw her rifle at Sarah. Sarah caught it. Then Grace hoisted her car battery and headed for the armory shed. Sarah, fuming, followed.

The afternoon sun loved Grace. It gilded her hair, set color in her cheeks, carved out her muscles with warm shadows. Anyone else would be creaming their jeans at the idea of owing Grace. But Sarah and Grace hadn’t always gotten along. Matter of fact, they’d hated each other for a while. The rich satisfaction in Grace’s voice, the way she narrowed her eyes, showed how close that past was. Sarah was in trouble.

Gun safety came first. Silently, they took their weapons down. Sarah waited for Grace to say something. Anything. Grace was taking care of her rifle right where the power source waited, buried in the armory’s walls. A spare spark of Carl was in there, powering up his cabin off the grid. Trust Grace to figure out what gave Sarah the creeps, pushed Sarah’s buttons.

For Sarah’s trouble wasn’t only Grace. She’d had a deeper, darker reason behind her lost gambit. At times, in her misadventures, she’d been taken by a tarnished curiosity. What would it be like to have one of those future robots, almost human, at her beck and call? To _fuck_ a Terminator?

Sarah had allowed herself to think that, occasionally, after a reprogrammed, biddable Terminator had saved her son. When another Terminator killed him, she’d hated herself for it, and so much more. Finding out ‘Carl’ was married, she’d wondered again. Only to loathe herself anew when Carl had kiboshed that. As if he’d read her mind, he denied any “physical relationship.” Like the metal motherfucker was above it. The whole idea was fucked up, as cursed as Sarah was.

Now, there was Grace. Human enough to love Dani. Cyborg enough to need a power source. Laced through with layer upon layer of tech. With the metallic skeleton, the inhuman response times, the goddamned enviable power of a Terminator. One night, over some ill-advised drinking, Sarah had clasped Grace’s wrist. She’d felt Grace’s weight and heat and scars, and something more. Grace had two pulses. The human beat of blood, a sparking electronic thrum.

Sarah had been cursed with imagination again, after that.

Today, she’d had plans for winning. Wanted to see Grace’s face when Sarah said, _I’m old and perverted and I have ideas._ To take Grace apart with dirty talk and probing hands. Spend some time on it, make Grace kick and groan and beg with impatience. Instead, Grace was the one looking inspired and smug. Grace was ruthless in strategy, ravenous in the bedroom. At least she was on low power. Sarah figured she’d survive this. Physically, anyway.

When Grace hung her rifle in its place, Sarah cleared her throat. “My room?”

“No. We’ll stay here.” Grace gave the cable connecting her to the car battery a shake. It fell into loose coils on the floor. The armory shed was small. Grace had a full range of motion in here, despite the cable. She tested that by taking a few paces, closing the door.

Sarah had just watched that when Grace seized her.

Next thing Sarah knew, she was slammed face-first against the space’s only flat surface, the door. Grace’s hands had a steel grip on Sarah’s wrists, and her touch ran hot. She was pushing what she could do on the battery. Sarah tested that, too, trying what had failed when they’d first met, three ways to break such a grip. Nothing worked. Instead, Grace escalated, pulling Sarah back to bounce her against the wall a couple of times.

On the upswing, Sarah growled, “Back where we started, huh?”

Grace followed Sarah’s body in, raised Sarah’s crossed arms higher. She said, light and even, “You’re lucky I don’t make you lick my boots.”

Sarah could take it and dish it out. “If that’s how it is, why don’t you? Mommy’s not here.”

Grace snarled at that, but caught her temper. “I’ve got other plans.” She rammed hard, locking a knee between Sarah’s thighs, curling her height around Sarah. “I want everything you held back the other night.”

Sarah managed to turn her neck to glare up. “The fuck are you talking about?” Their three-way had been outrageous.

Infuriatingly, Grace shook her. “The shit you wouldn’t do. The ways you held back.”

That, and Grace shoving her into the wall again, hit Sarah’s cunt like a lightning bolt. She writhed. She still had control of her mouth. “Didn’t know you were keeping score. Bitch.” 

Grace released Sarah, abruptly enough that Sarah staggered. “Shirt off. Now.” Sarah peeled dark cotton away, rolled her shoulders back as Grace surveyed her. Flushed and sweaty, she was nothing much to look at. Her good stuff was under the skin: muscles she’d fought to keep, nerves and reflexes she’d honed. Grace stared at Sarah like she might, possibly, see that.

“Bra, too.”

Sarah brazened this out, keeping eye contact with Grace. Maddeningly, while Sarah stripped above the waist, Grace crossed her arms over her own chest. Done, Sarah flicked the bra onto the floor, lifted her chin. “This is what my age looks like. You asked for it.”

Grace blinked. “You’re as pale as I am. But your nipples are dark – like Dani’s. And,” Grace stepped in, palmed down to Sarah’s waistband, “What are _those_ scars?”

She’d honed in on tiger-stripes streaking down Sarah’s waist to her flanks. Shock took Sarah’s brass away. “All that’s from when I had – a kid.”

Grace followed the silvery marks down, unzipping Sarah’s jeans to do it. Neither of them breathed. Sarah’s eyes were at the level of Grace’s mouth as she whispered, “I never...nobody in the Resistance was having kids. Nobody. Was having. Kids.” In her future she meant. For a moment, Grace’s hot, wide hand spread, pressed gently. Sarah inhaled.

That did something. Grace jammed her other hand against the denim on Sarah’s crotch, thumb in front, jolted Sarah up onto the counter that way. Sarah arced away from the ordnance on the wall behind her. That took her right into Grace, lowering to bite Sarah’s neck. Sarah gasped in pain. That one would leave a mark.

Something fierce and wordless had Grace. She gnawed down to devour Sarah’s tits, lifting the soft fall of them, sucking one side and working the other, switching to twist and bite. Flashes of pleasure, then the pain of what Grace had said, made physical. Sarah took it all, rocking her hips against Grace’s hand.

Sarah was biting back noise when Grace pushed away. Grace was flushed beyond the reflected warmth of the armory’s incongruous peach walls, eyes fixed and brilliant, edging up to her own brand of crazy. “You. You’ve done this from the moment we met. Throwing me off. Like this whole fucked-up past.” She let go of Sarah’s crotch to hook one belt loop, jerked Sarah off the counter. “You’re going to eat me out now. Get down.”

Sarah didn’t sass back. This was a relief. She hit the floor.

Grace didn’t turn to see it, swaggering to the back of the armory. She turned, bracing herself on the back counter, hands on its edges, chin lowered. Waiting. Sarah stood, met her eyes, took the four steps to meet her, and dropped again. Grace’s hands didn’t move. Sarah recognized the power of making someone else do dirty work. Fine. Grace was so tall that Sarah had to lever up onto one knee. This done, she cracked her knuckles and went for Grace’s fly, stripping Grace to her knees. And paused.

Below Grace’s scarred, sculpted abdomen, between her honed thighs, the swell of her cunt was startling. Her dun-colored pubes were groomed, in some permanent way, to a hard-edged bar. Below that, Sarah caught what she had glimpsed once before: a clit sizeable enough to peek out. A bonus from some meds that had bulked up Grace’s lankiness for her Augments, maybe. Or, as with Grace’s face, she’d been born lucky.

Grace had her hands on her naked flanks, now. “Well?” 

Sarah forced a laugh. “I’ve done a lot of dirty things with this mouth. If you’re ready, you’ll be one more.” She closed in.

Sarah’s bluff hid the truth. She’d handled women now and then without getting around to this. Damn, it was close. Tight. She felt Grace’s thighs tensing on either side of her, the steel-bar hardness of Grace’s bones. Burying her face, Sarah tasted. Grace was lavishly wet, hot flesh, with a note of acid – of lemon and salt – tinged with the same metal her sweat carried. Human and Machine.

Sarah started to slip two fingers into her own open jeans, but Grace missed nothing. “Hands behind your back.” Sarah muttered _fuck you_ into Grace’s vag and kept on.

She dished out what she liked: long laps, a nudging nibble at the top, sliding back down. Grace exhaled deeply, reached down to cup Sarah’s head in one hand. For a moment, that weight was pleasant. Grace even muttered, “Dani would like that.” Then, she knotted fingers into Sarah’s hair, pulled and growled. “Harder.”

Escalation was easy. Sarah sucked Grace’s clit. The flesh pulsed between her lips when she tongued it. Grace’s thighs clenched, went steelier, hotter. “Harder!”

The hands, the body, the taste in her mouth, all shared that Terminator taint. Sarah put some teeth into it. Anyone normal would’ve screamed and kicked her in the crotch. But Grace’s power had its price. Sarah didn’t know if the damage was in Grace’s body or her head. Wherever it was, Grace needed more. Sarah wrapped her hands around each of Grace’s knees, let herself get animal. She was down to one thing: making this machine bitch lose it.

Obsession paid off. Grace pulled Sarah in with both hands, grinding against her. “Like that – _unh_ – that – don’t – fucking – stop –“

Grace’s cries of release were all human. Sarah kept on until Grace tore her hands free.

With a deep breath, Sarah rocked back. She swiped her face, lifted her pressured knee to rub it. Satisfied, she said, “Done?”

Grace hooked a boot between Sarah’s legs, toppled her back. “No.”

Sarah caught herself and rose into Grace joining her on the floor, caging her. “You are not – “ again Grace whipping an arm behind Sarah, pressing her face to the floor – “leaving” – Grace’s other hand jerking and dragging Sarah’s jeans away – “with that smug look on your face. Oh, no.” A twist of Grace’s free hand stabbed Sarah’s aching cunt. Three fingers had her in one go.

Sarah snarled obscenities as Grace worked her arm. Her curses were only half for Grace. This was what Sarah had planned to do to her, complete with bringing her close to begging. The damn bitch kept missing Sarah’s hot spots. Sarah was arcing to try and angle Grace’s thrusts better. She was humiliating herself on this floor, next to a storage cupboard radiating heat -

Sarah’s heart stopped at what that meant.

Grace was fucking her right next to that damn power source. 

Grace had taken someone down beside the rod-like thorium reactor that was going to rearrange her guts, one way or another. She’d chosen to bend someone over here, of all places, and make them scream. Sarah wasn’t the only one to be time-wracked and twisted.

It was easy to smother a bitter laugh against the floor. Sarah lifted her head, leaned back into Grace’s fucking to get some air in her lungs and ask, “Why did you become an Augment?”

Grace’s hand stopped. “You’re asking _now?”_

“Yes!”

Grace’s breath seethed. “To stay alive for Dani. Is that ‘enough of a resume’ for you?”

Sarah lowered her shoulders. “None better.” Grace had filled her body with metal for the same reason Sarah had warped her mind with machines. To get their own back against Terminators. To stay alive. She closed her eyes and gave in. “Fuck me. Goddamn finish me.”

Grace did. Sarah buried her face in one elbow, gave in to roll of Grace’s arm. Let herself, this orgasmic once, scream. And scream again, because Sarah had half her answer now, pinned by Grace’s frictionless, inhuman touch.

Grace’s stop was sudden enough to shock, as was her withdrawing. It was the second time Grace had gone gentle. “You’re bleeding.”

Sarah shook her head clear. “No surprise at my age. You’re lucky I didn’t need lube.” Time was tearing her down, bit by bit. If only it was time alone, and not the future. Carefully folding herself together, Sarah turned. Grace’s face was bright and blank, somewhere between high and guilty. “Winner take all, you said. That enough?”

“Unless you’ve - yeah. I’m. Yeah.” With that, Grace stood, rising in one fluid movement, like gravity wasn’t pulling her down just yet.

Sarah hauled herself up more slowly. “You going to need a car battery top-up, after all that?”

“Mh. Probably. Ask Dani to meet me in the garage. She can hook me up.” Grace took a minute to untangle her battery cable. It hadn't gotten in the way the entire time. Sarah had forgotten it, herself. That done, Grace brought Sarah’s cast-off clothes over, waited without watching while Sarah dressed. She looked at an AK-47 on the wall to say, “Let me tell her about this.” 

“She’s your girlfriend. And the one who told me to keep you busy.” That got her Grace’s rare, true smile. “I’ll send her your way. Let me finish up here.”

From the armory’s doorway, Sarah watched Grace go. The sun still loved her, made her hair blinding, cast her shadow long.

* * *

The motel room’s door creaked open. Sarah levered herself off the wall. It was Grace. “Can I have a toke?”

Sarah raised her eyebrows at how Grace asked. “Here.” She held out the pack of cigarettes.

They smoked in silence. This was how they were, now, after that time in the armory, and killing a second Terminator together. Still the cycle of clashes, some kind of surrender, smoothing out. It approximated sanity. Dani still had a hell of a lot to do with that. 

Finally, Sarah asked, “What _did_ you smoke in the future?”

Grace exhaled. “Anything.”

Sarah snorted. “You’ll love California. Keep it legal ‘til then.”

Sarah considered what Grace wasn’t smoking, what she herself wasn’t drinking. If Dani had been taken from them by a Terminator, and the two of them had stuck together – Sarah could picture that downwards spiral. 

She went on. “You were right. I was cheating. Not with the marks. I was dealing from the bottom of the deck. Throwing good cards Dani’s way. Gave her a chance to strategize around an advantage.” When Grace was silent, Sarah said, “Did Dani need that, in the future?”

“She did in the end...” After more nicotine silence, Grace said, “That time at Carl’s. When we were shooting. Did you throw that, too?”

“No. I genuinely sucked.”

“I’ll say.” Grace smirked. “Dani wants you back in. Show us playing and cheating.”

Sarah tapped ash. “Once I’m done here. You’ll smell like smoke now.”

Grrace ground her cigarette out on a brick. Deadpan, she said, “I’ll tell Dani we were making out.” With that, Grace went back in.

Sarah idled through a few smoke rings. The way Grace and Dani fell into each other, it was a good thing that Sarah was used to killing time. She let them have a moment, privately counted to five. When she was down to the filter, too, she went in, herself. 

Inside, Dani was sitting very straight on the room’s dismal loveseat, a glint in her eye. Grace was sprawled beside and behind Dani, protectively. The pennies they’d been using as chips were lined up again. Dani had taken over the cards. She gave them a zippy shuffle. “Shall we play for real?”

Sarah had to grin. “Deal me in.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This encounter is refered to in passing in my longer fic _Fate Throws a Dagger_ , in [Chapter Ten.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21274814/chapters/51859276) There was a lot going on in that chapter already!


	6. bored on the fourth of july (e!!! dani/grace/sarah)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dani, Sarah, Grace, and a strap-on. Explicit femslash, three-way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter specific notes/warnings: a strap-on focused threeway, like it says on the tin. Mild gender play, first times, f/f/f with bi character and brief het sex discussion, superstrong cyborg problems, sex education solutions, and Dani getting what she wants.

“Get ready to sweat, it’s going to be a hot one. The mercury’s rising hard as we speak. Highs throughout the state of 96 to 102 degrees – “

Glancing at the television, Dani smoothed out the coverings of their motel room’s only bed. With that weather, they were going to spend most of the day inside. It would be nice if the space was nice. If she could have a good day with the two people who mattered most to her. Her dazzling, beloved protector, Grace, and her gruff mentor Sarah. Dani had loved waking up between both of them this morning. She didn’t expect to have to save the world today. But tomorrow might change everything for them, yet again.

Grace didn’t sound dazzling when she spoke. “Can we turn that off now? My Augments can’t take any more.” When Grace saw Dani looking over, she added, “Please. Something in that TV makes a noise.” Dani switched it off, smiling as Grace’s expression cleared.

Sarah seemed to agree with Dani, tidying the room’s few surfaces. Dani smiled at her, too, even though Sarah grumbled, “It’s like traveling with a golden retriever. Food, avoiding high-pitched noises... fireworks later going to set you off?”

Dani asked, “Fireworks?”

Sarah zipped a duffel bag shut. “It’s a holiday. The goddamned Fourth of July.”

“I’d forgotten about that,” Grace said. She slumped.

Dani sighed. “A day to celebrate having border walls.” She perched on the dismal loveseat next to Grace.

Grace stared into space. “None of this is going to matter soon.” Dani took her hand.

Sarah sat on the edge of the bed facing them. “Waste of gunpowder. Animals hate the fireworks. Plus this one-horse town will be shut, when we’re not meeting Major Dean until tomorrow.”

Dani asked, “Is anywhere open?”

“When I got coffee, the only signs of life I saw were an ‘adult bookstore’ and a Dairy Queen.” Sarah leaned back on her elbows. “America.”

“I’m not sure about this meeting with Dean,” Grace began.

Sarah snapped, “Then fucking stay here. After what Dean did for us, I owe him. Big time.”

Dani took a little breath. If she was going to save humanity in the near future, she would be helping people get along. She would begin here and now. “We all owe him. He was a good man. I would like to see him again – even if it has risk.”

Dani moved her hand to Grace’s knee, smiled at Sarah. Waking up today, Grace had wanted breakfast, and Sarah had wanted coffee. Dani, between their muscular bodies, had wanted something else. Maybe they did, too. “Also, I have an idea of what we can do today. Sarah, _hace la tienda que tu vio tiene juegetes_ _er_ _ó_ _tic_ _o_ _s?”_

Sarah sat bolt upright. _“Si, pero – “_

Grace sat up, too. “Okay, I almost got that. Something about sex.”

Dani turned her face up to Grace, leaned against her. “If that store is open we could get what we talked about yesterday. And try it together.” Dani’s next glance brought Sarah into that. “A strap.”

Sarah’s eyebrows went up. “A what? I thought you didn’t go for kinky shit.”

Dani found she’d wrapped her ankles around each other. “A strap-on...”

“Uh _-huh.”_ Sarah said, “I don’t have to ask who’s wearing it, do I?”

Grace looked mulish. “No.”

They glared at each other, expressions tough, eyes narrowed and glittering. For a moment, Dani thought she’d made a mistake. Then Sarah’s wicked grin bloomed. “Up for an audience?”

Grace softened slightly. “It’s fine.” She stood up. “Since it’ll be mine, I’ll get it.” When Dani stood, too, Grace added, coolly, “By myself.”

Sarah leaned back again, smirking. “Hat and sunglasses. Thanks to pervy shoplifters, those places are camera central.”

Dani watched while Grace snitched Sarah’s aviators and grabbed a baseball cap. She trailed after Grace to the door, touched her elbow. “ _Querida._ Right now? We could talk more. If you liked. Or...”

Grace mirrored her touch. “Whatever you want, I want you to have it.” She slid the sunglasses on. “Anyway, it’s not like we’ll think about anything else ‘till we do it. Across the street, you said, Sarah?”

“Can’t miss it.”

“Look after her. I’ll be back.” With that, Grace tossed Sarah the rifle they’d propped by the doorway. When Sarah caught it, Grace left.

Dani lingered by the door. Sarah said, “Relax. She’s crossing the street for a ten minute visit to a small-town sex shop. If this winds up in a Terminator’s database, we’ve got problems.”

Dani put her hands on her hips. “Grace could have given that gun to me. I can shoot it, now.”

“Paging Dr. Freud,” Sarah said. She put the gun down on the bed to her left. “I’m the one wearing clothes. Though I’d pay good money to watch you shoot in what you’re wearing.” Dani was barefoot, in nothing but a purple satin wrap and red briefs.

She curled up on the bed at Sarah’s right. For a moment, she was thoughtful. Fifty-three days ago, when she had her old life, Dani would never have done this. Sarah had said that, after a Terminator came for you, you were on the other side of a line from everybody else. Dani saw how that blurred Sarah’s sense of right and wrong. Grace had spoken of having sex to feel better: _What else do we have?_ Grace said that for reasons, all her life torn away, always asked if she was a machine. Dani saw herself falling into that, making her own rules. Until the rest of the world crossed the line, she needed to find a balance. A sane way to be there. Starting with the people who kept her from being alone, there.

Dani pulled their shared smartphone out of the robe’s pocket. “Grace and I talked last night about what we wanted. I think she will get this. The Feeldoe.” Dani turned the phone’s screen, and its vision of top-end, mutually pleasuring silicone, to Sarah.

Sarah stared at the screen silently for a few heartbeats. Then, she asked, scathingly, “There’s not _software_ in that, is there?”

“Not in this one. Only a little vibrator. See, that part goes inside a woman, so when she,” Dani squirmed, “moves or touches the, the long part, she will feel it.”

Sarah shook her head. “Don’t get your hopes up. Dave’s Discount Dildos across the street won’t have this luxury model. Whatever Grace gets will work, as long as she gets condoms and lube.”

“Condoms? She will not get me pregnant.” Dani giggled.

“Probably going to try her damndest,” Sarah said. “Condoms feel all right when a cheap toy doesn’t. Hold this.” Passing Dani the rifle, Sarah went back to the duffel bag she’d zipped earlier.

It took Sarah a few minutes to find what she wanted, some personal lube. Once she had it, Dani admitted, “This will be my first time. With a strap.”

“Your first.” Sarah managed to pack amusement, disbelief, and wariness into two words.

Dani nodded. “I wanted you there, too, because...if you know how I can...make it good for Grace...is it different?”

Sarah took her time considering this. She set the lube on the bedside stand, sat back beside Dani, thigh to thigh. At last, she said, “Grace’s side or yours? I’ve done both.”

Dani felt her eyes widen. “But – Grace’s side – wearing the – if you were not with women, so much, how do you know?”

Sarah snorted. “Men are perverts. Half of them want a woman to strap it on and fuck them. All of them want to be told what to do in bed.”

“Sarah!” Dani nearly screamed, laughing. Was it that men who wanted to be ‘told’ had been drawn to Sarah? Or that anyone who wanted Sarah learned, fast, how Sarah liked to be in charge? Either way, Sarah was going on.

“Men don’t know what women like. Or if they’ve got a clue, they ‘forget’, try to get away with being lazy. I learned to not expect much the first time. Instead, I’d decide if a man was worth taking on for training.”

“Sarah,” Dani repeated. “Were none of them good at first?”

Dani wasn’t surprised by the name Sarah put first. “Kyle. He knew what he didn’t know. I...had to make the move. Like you did, today. I showed him everything.” Sarah stared into the distance. “It was perfect.”

The sudden heartbreak of that made them both quiet. To find someone perfect for you, and to lose them: Dani had come so close to that, with Grace. Dani leaned against Sarah, kissed her cheek. Sarah’s skin was soft, there, part of the tenderness she hid behind being gruff. 

Sarah’s arm found Dani’s waist. “For you...it’ll feel different. You’ll see.”

Dani kissed her again. That kiss found Sarah’s lips, went on for a while. Afterwards, almost nose to nose with Sarah, Dani asked, “How?”

Sarah tilted her head, murmuring into Dani’s ear. “A hand fucking you – it’s intense. Smart. Somebody’s making you come, getting your hot spots. Focused. A big dick isn’t, but it doesn’t miss anything. It’s full, it’s... if you like it inside, you’ll feel done. Believe me.” Feeling Sarah’s hot breath, imagining Grace making her feel _done_ , Dani shivered. “Doesn’t mean you just lie there. Your whole body’s in the game. You can – ”

Right then, the door rattled.

Sarah stiffened, reaching for the rifle. They’d changed their pass phrase. It was simple enough that Grace didn’t mangle it. “ _Me vale madres.”_

“If only,” Sarah said, cracking the door open.

Grace entered with a black plastic shopping bag. Sarah twitched the sunglasses off her face as she passed. They exchanged a glare. “Nice package,” Sarah said.

Grace ignored that. “I’ll get set up.” Just as she was about to vanish into the bathroom, she stopped. “They didn’t have... it’s different from what we talked about.” With that, Grace closed the door. Sarah, proved right, left it at _hmph._

Dani, poised on the end of the bed, found her mind had gone blank. She watched as Sarah locked the door, dead-bolted and re-jammed it. Setting the rifle beside it again, Sarah joined Dani, stripped away her watch and boots. From inside the bathroom, water ran. It occurred to Dani, too late, that she wanted to look nice for this. For Grace. She was glad she’d chosen the purple wrap on a shopping run. Sarah always looked twice when Dani wore the wrap: it must be pretty. She ran her hands through her hair, bit her lips.

Sarah sat an arm’s length out from Dani, now. She put her sunglasses down next to the lube. “If this gives me a heart attack, my sunglasses are yours. Not hers. Yours.”

“Sar- _ah!”_ Dani’s voice shifted as she spoke, because the door had opened. Grace stood there, offering. And everything else evaporated.

Grace held her head high, shoulders back. She was close to naked. With her skin still flushed from the heat outside, every scar stood out. Her nipples, perfectly round, mirrored the smaller round scars that centered her white Augmentation slashes. Those scars were vivid next to the harness she wore. Heavy black straps, touched with metal, crossed Grace’s hips, framed her crotch and what it carried. With her right hand, she cupped a substantial shaft. A few strides took her across the room, to kneel at Dani’s feet.

Dani looked down, fascinated. Grace had chosen a shaft the same warm shade as her forearms. As if it was a final Augment. Its head curved and flared: the top part of the shaft rippled symmetrically, until it met black leather at Grace’s crotch. The name Dani wanted to sigh in love got caught in fear. Did Grace – well, want to be _Grace,_ right now? Did Grace even feel like a _she,_ with this final augmentation? Dani was as overwhelmingly turned on as she’d been her first time with Grace. What did that mean about her?

She jumped when Sarah brushed against her, leaning in. The older woman said, thick and smoky, “Looking ambitious there, soldier.”

Dani went warm with gratitude for that one word. Grace shifted, too, met Dani’s eyes. “Present for inspection, ma’am.”

Dani breathed, “You look perfect.” Grace lowered her head, her smile flashing.

Sarah elbowed Dani and hinted, heavily, “Can you wrap your hand around that, or what?”

Grace’s breath hitched as Dani tried just that. The shaft’s material only had a little give. Its hardness was close to the way Grace’s metal-reinforced flesh felt, both things a step away from nature. The shaft was such a good match for Grace that Dani hadn’t realized how long and thick it was. Her fingers did not meet around the base, by centimeters. Dani swallowed. But when she drew her hand away, Grace’s hips canted forwards, following her touch.

“Sarah, what do you...” Dani gestured down.

She wasn’t even sure what she was asking Sarah to do. But Dani didn’t need to ask twice. Sarah fairly pounced. Her hand flew as she took Grace’s measure, pulling the shaft down for a bounce, palming the length, ringing the base again. “Eight by five? Thought so. This cock of yours is a hard day’s work.” With a final grip on the base, Sarah jammed back. Grace jolted. Again, Sarah hinted, “You saw where I put the lube?”

Grace recovered enough to glare. “I’ve got some other things to do, first.”

“I bet.”

Grace didn’t reply. Meeting Dani’s eyes again, she reached up, took Dani by the shoulders. “Like kissing you.”

Melting with relief, Dani let herself be pulled half-off the bed, into Grace’s rising embrace. She split her legs to wrap them around Grace’s waist, found herself pulled onto those strong hips, Grace’s shaft pressed between them. As Dani opened her mouth, Grace held the back of her head and kissed her. For a blissful minute, Dani was held by Grace’s strength, probed with her tongue, both of them moving together, getting used to Grace’s differences. When their lips parted, Grace gently replaced Dani on the bed.

Sarah said, “You’re classier than I am. I’ll be over here.” She shifted back onto the bed, sitting against the headboard, which creaked.

Dani missed her, with a strange pang. But Grace let herself light up with hawklike intensity. She slid a hand inside Dani’s robe, caressing her breasts. “Are you ready?”

 _Yes_ warred with _no_. She’d wanted this, asked for it. Talking about it a little with Grace yesterday had made them wild. But that kind of talking hadn’t been thinking. Grace, kneeling up straight, was taller than Dani, bigger in every way, so very strong. Dani had never taken more than three of her fingers, and that was more than usual. She peeked down between them at the shaft. At Grace’s cock. Looking up, she saw Grace’s blue gaze, her whole face open with adoration. Grace had said yes to her. She would, too. “Yes.”

As Dani let her wrap fall. Grace reached for her again. Shifting them both, she laid Dani down, pulled her forward. Dani let her legs fall open. She could brace her toes on the floor, just, if she concentrated. She stopped doing that when Grace stripped her red briefs away, stroked her cunt. Grace said, hushed, “You’re so...” With two fingertips, she probed inside Dani. Dani arced at the familiar pleasure, closing her eyes.

Then that went away. Both Grace’s hands balanced on her thighs. Dani crushed her closed eyes tighter as wide bluntness pressed between her legs. “Ah!” It was like a fist, instead of a hand, hard and strange.

She heard Grace ask, “Pass me the lube?” The next thing Dani knew, Grace was laving Dani’s cunt with chilly slickness. Dani turned her head and accepted it. She didn’t relax until she felt Grace’s hands back on her thighs, radiant with heat. When Dani opened to Grace’s hands, the shaft pressed back, too, cool in comparison to Grace’s flesh. This time, Dani felt it spread and slide, starting to enter. “Is that good?”

“Yes.” It was, for that instant. Then, Grace changed everything, thrusting in, leaning down. Dani cried out, opened like never before, the heat and stretch of it on the edge of pain. “Ah!”

“Oh, god,” Grace said, voice ragged. “I’m in you.” And she began to move.

Later, when Dani remembered the next few minutes, she decided they had never been closer, nor further apart. Grace was frantic with hunger, forceful, heavy. It seemed like whenever Dani started to enjoy it, Grace would change her angle, leaning forwards or back, adjusting Dani’s legs. Dani whipped her head back and forth, gasping.

When that turned into sharp little cries, Grace stopped, withdrew. Dani flexed with relief. They were both on the bed, now. Dani had been pushed back, and Grace had followed her, and here they were.

Grace asked, “Did you come?”

Dani blinked. She didn’t know. “I – did you?”

Grace turned to the side. “These straps...”

“You’re stronger than they are.”

Dani and Grace both looked at the end of the bed. They’d been so involved, they’d forgotten Sarah was there. Sarah was kneeling upright, hands on her hips, frowning. “That’s made for somebody normal. Not you. I’d tighten it up.”

“Can you help?” Dani slid aside. Grace knelt up, echoing Sarah.

Sarah shifted over to beside Dani. To Dani’s surprise, she took the lube. “This’ll take thirty seconds.”

First, Sarah pried her lubed hand down the front of Grace’s harness. Grace yelped, “Hey!”

Sarah ignored that. “Figured this wasn’t the fancy one you wanted. Lube the base. Makes it more fun for you. And,” Sarah added, jerking the whole works downwards, “Lower it, so the lubed part lines up with your cunt. Then tighten the shit out of it.” Sarah did just that.

“How’s that?” When Grace didn’t reply, Sarah reached down. “Let’s jack you off and see.”

Dani watched Sarah’s tough, practiced hand wrap Grace’s shaft, give it a hard roll. Grace’s mouth opened. “That’s more,” she admitted.

Seeing Sarah’s hand linger so knowingly, Dani had to ask. “Sarah...do you want to?”

Sarah’s eyes glittered. “If you’re sharing.” Sarah gave Grace’s cock another roll in her hand.

Grace’s high color deepened. She said, “I’ll do anything Dani wants.”

Sarah’s mouth twisted, “You’ll be saying, ‘thank you, Dani, ma’am,’ when I’m done.” With that, she bent neatly at the waist, parted her lips, and took half Grace’s shaft into her mouth in one go.

Dani’s gasp was drowned out by Grace’s shout. Sarah stayed there until they’d both taken the sight of it in. She drew her mouth back, almost releasing the shaft, then sank down again, deeper. Grace groaned, “Fuck.”

Sarah showed off with three more strokes. For the last one, she ringed her fingers around the base of the shaft, giving it a jolt back. Dani glimpsed that Sarah’s fingers didn’t meet, either. When Grace groaned again, eyes glazed, Sarah let go and swung upright.

Though the three of them had been together a few times, Dani realized she’d never really watched Grace and Sarah together. She’d always been between them, or very busy with one or both of them. They stared into each other’s eyes, not with love, but angry fascination. Grace’s face was hard. Sarah was her usual furious self as she said, “How about I get on top of you?”

Grace said, steely, “Oh, no. I want you to feel it.”

Sarah huffed. “That thing’s the size of an ICBM missile. I’d have to be dead not to feel it.”

“Then take it off, so you can.” Grace put her hands on her hips, right over the harness straps.

With her eyes locked to Grace, Sarah undressed. Dani was delighted. Sarah could be modest. She was so fit, Dani thought, she didn’t need to be, particularly from behind. On the bed, Sarah knelt in front of Grace with the ease of a dancer, her back straight and strong. Grace liked what she saw, too. She ran her big hands over Sarah’s breasts, the only softness about Sarah’s narrow body, doing something to Sarah’s dark nipples. When Grace did, Sarah turned her head to one side with a gasp. Grace moved her hand down. “You feel ready. Brace yourself.”

They went down together, just as Dani and Grace had started. It only lasted an instant before Sarah levered up on her elbows. “Back. Move back. You and your battering ram weigh a fucking ton!” Dani covered her mouth. If Sarah was saying that – it wasn’t only her.

Face tight, Grace leaned up, losing being chest to chest with Sarah. For a minute, she thrust lightly, mechanically. When Sarah’s eyes drifted closed, Grace nearly pouted. Finally, she said, “It was better when you were sucking me.”

Sarah opened her eyes, leaned up on her elbows. “You need it hard, huh? Pull out and try me from behind.”

Grace jerked away. Sarah rolled onto her knees smoothly, reached out for where she’d last seen the lube. Dani passed it to her. Sarah took it, slicked herself, and handed it back with a wink. “Slick yourself up, too.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Report for duty, soldier.”

Dani found her hand lingering between her legs as, on her own knees, she watched. Grace was breathing heavily as she positioned herself behind Sarah’s back. Locking together once more, they both grimaced. When Grace was inside her, Sarah’s expression smoothed out. “Mmmmh. That’s more like it.” She leaned forwards onto her elbows.

Grace glared down. Dani could glimpse how she was taking Sarah, sunk in deep, with only an inch to spare. “You ready to come?”

Sarah laughed, once. “I’ve been coming this entire time.”

Grace gripped Sarah’s flanks harder. “That’s what you think!”

Dani saw the moment when they clicked. It was astonishing. Suddenly, they had the same rhythm, the same snarling breaths, Sarah arcing back as Grace thrust forward. With her chest folded to the bed, hair tumbled forwards, Sarah’s wiry frame had gone boyish; Grace, on her knees, teeth gritted, was all muscle and tension.

Sarah writhed, spat hair out of her mouth. “Goddamn it. You’re a good fuck. You machine bastard.” Her right arm hammered the bed.

Grace loosed her own raw laugh, kept going until Sarah’s rough gasps turned to a half-sob. She clawed her right hand into the bed and froze.

Grace froze, too. They stayed like that for three of Dani’s breaths. When Sarah stayed still, Grace detached herself. Dani was touched to see her look concerned, hear her ask Sarah, “You okay?”

Sarah rearranged her legs, levered upright on her good arm. When she lifted her face, her wicked smile was back. “Oh, I am _fine._ Thanks for the ride.”

Dani moved in between them, tracing her right arm around Sarah’s waist, reaching out to Grace with her left. Grace came to her. Sarah turned. For a short, sweet moment, Dani was between both of them. Sarah, for all her bravado, was still breathing hard. Grace was blazing, slicked with sweat. Dani turned her left hand to feel Grace’s forehead. “I will get you some water.”

Sarah smacked Dani’s hip lightly. “I will. You two canoodle.” With that, she slid off the bed.

“Canoodle?” Grace said, mystified.

“I do not know, either,” said Dani.

Grace shrugged, then whispered, “The shit Sarah said. Did I hurt you? I didn’t - I never - ”

Dani kissed her. “If I was hurt, it was me.” She spread her hand on Grace’s back. Along with her heat, Grace was trembling slightly. “How are you?”

Grace shook her head, eyes glazed again. “I’m. I was so close.”

“To coming? Me also.” Dani put both her arms around Grace’s neck. “Would you fuck me again?”

Grace pulled her in. “Any way you want. My hand, or you on top, or...”

“The way you and Sarah just did?” Dani let go and knelt with her back to Grace, tossing her hair to peek over her shoulder. Grace, too, rose to her knees, bringing back their height difference, making the bed dip under her concentrated weight. She brushed her front against Dani’s back, reaching down with her long arms to cage Dani lightly, stroking and pressing Dani’s breasts.

Dani felt Grace’s shaft brush her back, above her waist. To bring that down to her hips, Dani leaned forwards onto her hands. With nothing to see but rumpled pillows in front of her, she could feel. Grace, behind her, folding her incredible long legs, lining up. Grace’s hand, stroking her, positioning the thick, hard shaft, right behind Dani’s hips. Grace’s whole body tensing when Dani leaned further into the touch behind her. She could hear Grace, too, her voice shaking like her body. “Oh my God. Oh my God. This looks so fucking hot.”

Behind them both, Sarah rasped, “Hell, yes. Hydrate first.” Dani heard Grace swallowing. She started at a touch on her shoulder, Sarah’s face leaning to her at an unaccustomed angle. _“Estas bien?”_

_“Si. Tumbo aqui?”_

“Hot little bitch.” Sarah eased back along the head of the bed, lying on her side, watching openly. Her trim body, scarred here and there, was much more interesting than the pillows.

Grace’s wide hands seized Dani’s hips. Her breath was hitching with eagerness. “Dani, can I, please –“

“Yes.” Dani’s eyes flew open as wide bluntness pressed her hard, again.

Without thinking, she reached for Sarah. Sarah’s fingers knotted into hers. “Breathe, kiddo.”

Dani did. It helped as much as Sarah’s rough affection. She leaned forwards, and Grace adjusted, and Dani cried out, taken like before. “Ah!”

“Fuck,” Grace said, and did. In a minute, Dani was thrust forward by Grace’s new, steady rythm. Like this, from behind, it was smoother. The stretch of it went easier, turned into tight fullness. The heat of it both teased and satisfied. Grace’s grip, her thighs behind Dani, kept them close. Dani rested her face against Sarah’s firm thighs, held Sarah’s hand tighter. Sarah said, “Still okay?

“Perfect,” Dani said. Sarah understood. She crushed Dani’s hand, then let go.

Dani lifted her shoulders from the bed. Grace paused, lifting her hands. “Dani? Tell me...”

Dani swept her hair away to look at Grace. It wasn’t enough. “I’m going to turn around. I want to see you. Kiss you.”

Drawing away to do that brought Dani up against Sarah. Dani leaned over to give her a grateful kiss. But Sarah drew back, smacked Dani’s hip lightly. “Keep it going. Get yours.”

Grace slid down to the end of the bed, kneeling where she’d started. Dani followed her to the edge. Simply, smoothly, they locked together a third time. For Dani, there was no pain, only heat and fullness. After a few thrusts, Grace eased forwards, closer, leaning her hands on either side of Dani’s shoulders. Grace bowed her head so they could kiss. For that moment, they stayed still – almost still, on Dani’s part. She was the one who broke the kiss to mouth down Grace’s long neck. When Grace started to move again, Dani scattered a few kisses over her nipples, then lost concentration.

This was it. This was what Dani had wanted. Grace’s body framed around her, her legs just long enough to embrace Grace’s hips. Bringing their whole bodies to it, moving together, both hands free to embrace. All of that with the pleasure of being fucked. Dani knew, now, what Sarah had meant about feeling so good the whole time. The closeness of it, being held and taken, overwhelmed, was what loving Grace felt like. Her whole body went hot as burning air, tense as Sarah, bright as Grace’s hidden fire. “I need you. I love you. I – ah!”

“Dani – I’m with you – “ Grace thrust hard and final, three times, with a raw, breathy cry each time. When Dani’s legs, loose after a sweet, deep orgasm, released her, Grace withdrew.

Dani reached down and cupped herself. She’d never been so swollen, tightening up after being so open. Grace, after catching her breath, hammered onto the bed beside Dani.

Dani reached for her face, wonderingly. “Did we – did we come together?”

Grace was beaming. “Yeah.” Soft with pleasure, she returned the caress, stroking Dani’s cheek. “Can we do it again?”

Dani’s dry lips parted. “Um,” she began.

Sarah’s laugh came to her rescue. “Still hard, huh? What do you say?”

Grace’s flush returned. “Thank you, Dani, ma’am.” She kissed Dani’s cheek. “And fuck you, Sarah,” she added, not very seriously. Dani batted her lightly for that.

Sarah said, “Mmmm, you’ve been on duty, soldier. Maybe it’s your turn to get fucked.”

Grace leaned up on one elbow, sharpened with interest. “What did you have in mind?”

“Jack yourself off a little and I’ll show you.” Smooth as a reptile, eyes sly and bright, Sarah moved down to Grace’s left side. “Dani, pass the lube?”

Dani opened the top and handed it over. The bottle felt light. Teasingly, she said, “We may need to go across the street again.”

Grace half-sat up. “Oh, no. I’m not going back and you’re not going. I’m not protecting you if I let you go. I – unh – Sarah, make up your mind down there!”

Dani couldn’t see what Sarah was doing, quite. She was straddling Grace’s left thigh, one hand busy between Grace’s legs, below the harness. “In a minute. Do I want to see you take it like a man, or not? Decisions, decisions.”

Dani lay down again, letting her body brush Grace. How nice, that Grace got to be in the middle. And that Dani had some help taking care of her, with Grace and Sarah getting along. Grace had started to swear at Sarah, but it was friendly swearing, Dani was sure. Grace was opening her legs wider, either way.

Quickly, Dani checked the nightstand. There was still water there, and Sarah’s watch. It wasn’t midday yet. The day might get even hotter. Tired, aching, happy, Dani settled in to watch.

It was a holiday, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little Spanish:  
>  _hace la tienda que tu vio tiene juegetes eróticos?_ – Did the store that you saw have sex toys  
>  _Si pero_ – Yeah, but -  
>  _Me vale madres_ – I don’t give a fuck  
>  _Estas bien?_ – You good?  
>  _Si. Tumbas aqui?_ – Yes. Lie down here?
> 
> Four smut pieces in a row! They insisted. -fans self- I'll be working on some gen pieces next.
> 
> I think the Lemonheads are fine. I'm not a huge fan, but they're part of the soundtrack of my Gen X life.


	7. A minute to twelve (genfic)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarah Connor and Major Dean meet up for a conversation, an update on the Doomsday clock, and a few surprises. Genfic.

In Los Alamos, Sarah eyed the Manhattan Project Visitor Center. There wasn’t much to it, one story of 1950s concrete, a few pallid signs. Like it was shy about why it was here: to tell how the world had created nuclear war. Started humanity on the path to Judgement Day.

It was also where she’d agreed to meet up with her U.S. military contact, Major Dean.

She glanced down at her chunky watch. It replaced the one Border Control had taken off her, two and a half months ago. Its digits read 11:59. Major Dean was a man of his word. If he said he’d be somewhere at 1100 hours 59 minutes, he’d show then, not a minute later.

If meeting up here was crazy, that was Sarah’s life. The shit that had happened since she’d lost her last watch hadn’t made her any saner. She’d wound up on the doorstep of a Terminator, reluctantly allied with him against another of his kind. Both the hunter-killers from the future had died, neither at Sarah’s hand. Sarah had survived, with a new obsession – protecting Dani Ramos – and someone who shared it, the time-displaced supersoldier Grace.

Sarah’s companions both moved closer to her. “I think this is him,” Dani said.

“It’s him,” Grace confirmed. “But…”

Sarah kept her eyes on her watch. It ticked to 12:00. “His team as described? Only three? If we’re fucked, you know what to do.” Run, and let Sarah take the fall. Dean had never sold her out before – more than Sarah could say for others. Then again, she’d left Dean with a multi-million bill for damages, two ‘terrorist attacks’ to cover, and ten bullets in him.

Neither Grace or Dani moved. “I don’t think they’re a threat,” Grace said. She almost sounded amused.

Dani cleared her throat. “Sarah? I do not think you should swear for a while.” 

Before Sarah could come up with a retort to that, a rich voice called out, “Sarah Jeanette Connor.”

Sarah looked up. There was Major Dean, sharp in civvies, including the cane helping him walk. He’d said he’d show with three people, and he had. Three children trailed after him, two similar-looking girls and a small boy. Sarah pinged the boy’s age at about six. Maybe. She caught his considered moves, slow for a kid, then the medical bracelet he wore.

They were obviously, painfully, Dean’s own children.

Sarah bit her lips on a string of curses. This was what she got for agreeing to this meeting. High-stakes, off-the-books, deliberate manipulation. However much shit she was in now, she had to admire Dean for it. As well as him making it to a meeting, on military time, with three children in tow.

Dean finally reached Sarah. “Glad to see most of your operations team again. Maybe this time we can have some real introductions? Sarah, allow me to introduce Katy, Mae, and Fraser Junior. This is Sarah. She’s an old friend of mine.” Sarah raised her eyebrows at the upgrade. The children said polite hellos, their eyes on Dani and Grace.

It was Sarah’s turn. She gave Grace’s fake name, the one that matched her fake ID, and added, “Don’t send her through a metal detector, don’t ask her to arm wrestle, and don’t leave your sandwich unattended around her.”

Grace said, “Hi.” To Sarah, she muttered, “It was one sandwich.”

Dean reached out and shook Grace’s hand. He shook his fingers out afterwards. “I wouldn’t try and get a sandwich back off of you.”

Reluctantly, Sarah added, “And Dani. She keeps us from killing each other.”

After Dani’s _hello_ , Dean smiled. “I respect you already, ma’am.” They, too, shook.

One of the girls looked back at the visitor center. “Daddy. Have they got a bomb here?”

“Why, I don’t know, darlin’. Maybe they do inside. How about we all go in, while Sarah and I catch up?”

The two girls fell in beside Sarah. They were clearly twins. Compared to the clothes Sarah had worn at that age, or set John up with, they were dressed like miniature movie stars. “How did you meet our dad?”

“I met him at…work.” A set of Terminator coordinates in 2007 had sent Sarah to a playa in Nevada, packed with thousands of techno-hippies. Dean, a young intelligence officer, had been there off-duty. Smart enough for the playa’s artsy shit to be his idea of fun, sharp enough to recognize Sarah and try to arrest her. She’d had to dodge Dean as well as take out the Terminator. Dean had seen enough to come over to her side, just in time. They’d only blown the place up a little.

Afterards, Dean had used his military contacts to smooth things over. Later, he found that what Sarah shared with him had some top-secret files making sense. They’d been contacts of convenience ever since. Maybe because each of them was out of place in their worlds. Brilliant Dean was black, in one of the most bleached branches of the military. Sarah was crazy as a den of foxes, in the asylum of her Terminator knowledge. He was never pleased to hear from her. But he made things happen that Sarah couldn’t, or tipped her off, and she did the same. Until now.

Sarah asked the girls, “Where’s your mom?” Dean had mentioned, once, getting married, but his hands were bare today.

As one, the twins looked down. “She died last year. She had cancer.”

“She’s buried here. We brought her flowers yesterday.”

“Sorry.” The military still had intelligence and research in Los Alamos. Sarah figured the woman’s grave glowed in the dark.

Dani came to Sarah’s rescue, swooping in. “It’s very nice to meet you. I like your braids.”

“We like yours, too!” Dani, wary of what the day might bring, had asked Grace to do her hair for action, in five braids tight to her head.

Dean was distracted in a way Sarah understood, watching his son. The small boy hovered around Grace. Sarah hadn’t thought Grace would be good with kids. She was. Gently, Grace let the boy put his foot next to hers, his hand against hers. When he smiled, Grace scooped him up, put him on her shoulders. “Careful,” Dean said.

“He’s secure,” Grace said. “Aren’t you?” The boy nodded, loving his new vantage point. Dean let Grace carry the kid into the center.

Sarah fell back to Dean’s side. He spoke low. “Nice work, Connor. After my last debrief around you and your Girl Scouts, the Doomsday clock got moved forwards forty seconds. We’re at a minute to midnight, now.”

Sarah huffed. “Forty seconds? Then you’re still not taking me seriously.”

Dean shook his head. “It’s not that my people don’t believe you. Not with the mayhem you show up for and what I cover when you’re done with your aggressive temporal anomalies.” Dean never said _Terminators._ “It’s that my people say they can’t afford to act on it. Don’t want to cause a panic, they say.”

“Same shit, different day.” Sarah put her hands on her flanks. “Why are we here? What do you want from this?”

“Came to ask you the same question.” Dean leaned in. “Ever think about coming in out of the cold?”

Her, Sarah, join the US military? “Are you fucking serious? After what you just said?”

Dean waited.

Sarah weighed it. It was a clean version of what she’d considered one desperate night a month back: bartering herself to Dean for Dani’s safety, to get the resources Grace needed then. They were doing better, now. And there’d be more to this than working with Dean. Especially with how close she really was to Grace and Dani. “No. I’m everything this government hates. I’d last thirty seconds before they shot me. How do you handle it, Dean? How do you handle the god-awful bone-headed stupidity of them all?”

Dean threw it back at her. “How do you handle it, Sarah? Knowing what you do, I mean.”

Sarah lifted her chin. “That’s easy. I don’t.”

Dean chuckled. “I do believe you’re a liar. You’re handling it same way I am. Watching out for the future.” He eased into the visitor center.

Grace and his son, Dani and his daughters, were looking around. The girls were taking turns reading the center’s displays to Dani. “One lady on the project said _Our parties and athletic activities were a healthy escape from the nervous strain of the great Project in which we were involved. Without this release in al_ _– in alcohol and fresh air we would have gone mad_.” Sarah smirked. Damn if that wasn’t her.

To Dean, Sarah said, “I’d jinx your operation. I’ve made all the mistakes.” She had a trail of bloody death behind her, Judgement Day ahead. Along the way, she’d been a terrible mother. Slept with the wrong people. Seen the wrong ones die. Changed fate – for the worse, with a second Judgement Day on the schedule, according to Grace, making it a minute to midnight.

“Your friends seem all right.” Dean nodded towards Grace and Dani.

“They’re the future I’m watching out for. Before you ask, neither one of them is a kid of mine.” Grace was increasingly ticked off by this assumption. “But what they know, and what they’ll do, will change the world.”

Dean raised his eyebrows. “Not starting a cult, are you?”

Sarah smirked. “I’m as irreligious as ever. The time I was going to scam the Mormons doesn’t count.”

“That’s something. Though, if the worst happens, it’s them and you who’d be prepared. Am I right?”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “Why does everyone assume that?”

“It _is_ in your dossier that you constantly predict nuclear war and artificial-intelligence crises.”

Sarah said, “I agreed to this kaffeklatch to ask you to make them part of our agreement. Sharing intel, not selling each other out.”

“Interesting. Very interesting. I thought I’d bring the family to this fish fry for a similar reason. To ask you and yours to keep an eye on them, in case anything happened to me.” Dean reached into a messenger bag, offered her a folder.

Sarah did not reach out in turn. She glared. “You thought I’d see three cute kids and go all Tiger Mom.”

Dean said, “It _is_ another of your defining characteristics in your dossier.”

Sarah folded her arms. “That was a while ago.”

“All I’m asking for is some backup, Sarah. Like you’ve had from me. Like yours’ll get from me. Now that it’s a minute to midnight.”

Dean’s eyes were hollow. Maybe with the weariness of a recuperating, grieving man wrangling three children. Or with the sleeplessness that Sarah knew too well, herself. If Dean, with all the resources he could leverage, was asking her this, the future was just as fucked as she’d been saying all along.

Sarah caught that Grace was watching them intently. Convenient, to have a supersoldier with Augmented hearing as backup. Dani was by Grace’s side. Grace bent down and whispered something to her. Dani caught Sarah’s gaze, nodded.

Sarah wasn’t a supersoldier like Grace, or a genius like Dean, but she could get a message. After Dani’s nod, she took Dean's folder. “No guarantees. If shit goes down, it is seriously going down. Comms blocked. Transport fucked. You name it. Does this say where you’ll be based? I’ll tell you where we’ll be. Be advised that if you make me regret it, I’ll finish what that last Terminator started with you.”

Swapping details felt like business again. While they wrapped up, the children swarmed Grace and Dani. Katy and Mae each grabbed one of Dani’s hands. One girl said, “This place is boring, for a museum!”

The other one added, “We went to where the Native ‘Mericans used to live in the hills and – and it was better – and I want to move in there.”

Dani said, “I would like to see that. Tell me more.”

Grace had closed the gap between her, Dean, and Sarah. She ushered Dean’s boy in front of him. Dean smiled, gently. “How’s this place, son?

The kid frowned. That did more to Sarah than any sparkle or cuteness. “I don’t like it.”

Grace said, “Me neither.”

Together, they drifted back outside. Despite the shade of the building’s entrance, the midday heat was like a physical thing, pressing them apart. Dean said, “Had a long day yesterday, with a late night at the fireworks. I’d better keep this crew moving. Thanks for coming out.”

Dani’s mouth quirked. “You are very welcome.” She leaned over to give the girls hugs. “Maybe you’ll see us again sometime.”

The girls hopped and clapped. “That would be awesome!” Dean’s son looked up, and up, at Grace. He nodded. She nodded.

Dean muttered, for Sarah, “Nothing personal, but I sincerely hope it’ll be a while. If at all.”

Sarah replied, “Then be ready. Either way.” She turned on her heel, strode into the noonday sun, bright as the blast the Manhattan Project had brought to her nightmares.

With her sunglasses on, the sun didn’t blind her. Her eyes, hidden, didn’t betray her emotions. She needed that shelter. Because Major Dean, that dutiful, ambitious family man, was doing what a hundred, a thousand people hadn’t: taking her seriously. Either the present had caught up with Sarah’s crazy, or Sarah Connor was sane, at long last. The possibility, alone, was something. If she dashed a little dampness off her cheeks, below the black lenses, that didn’t count as crying.


	8. the road (genfic)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Sarah, Dani, and Grace get to their next refuge, they'll be dealing with the future. So maybe they’ll take a little time to get there, and road trip along the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven’t seen a formal prompt but I’ve picked up a vibe, a yearning, for “more road trip, but OK this time.” Here's one take...

Sarah hauled herself into the driver’s seat of their SUV. Dani was secure in the back seat. Grace, rearranging her weapons, was beside Dani. They’d just taken care of business with one of Sarah’s contacts. She’d bought them a little slack in the U.S. of A., received a lot to think about in return. Sarah shoved it aside to keep them moving. “Next stop, Big Bear, California. We’ll see if my old cabin there is any good. If it’s not, plan B.”

“Then,” Dani said, “We get ready for...ready to...”

A silence fell. It had the unnatural energy of a hot zone, the weight of heavy water. Sarah didn’t have it in her to break it. In the rear-view mirror, Grace’s blue eyes had gone leaden, remembering the future, which was her past, which was – Sarah knew too much about what it was.

Dani was too short for Sarah to see her in the back. But her voice was strong and clear. “Do we have to go there immediately?”

Grace said, “If we stop a place or two, I’ll look out for us.”

Somehow, the idea made the air light enough to breathe again. “A couple of stops is all right.” Sarah started the SUV. “I’d planned one, anyway.”

Dani and Grace asked, together, “Where?”

“It involves a left turn at Albuquerque.”

Neither of them laughed. Instead, Dani said, to Grace, “That was the way you wanted to go,” and Grace muttered _mmm-hmmm._ Typical Grace, keeping her cards close to her chest, but not picking a fight about it. Sarah shifted gears, gave the wheel a turn. It seemed like her bad shoulder was willing to put up with some driving.

It was as good a way to get going as any.

* * *

Grace’s satisfaction intensified when it turned out Sarah was wrong.

They didn’t stop in Big Bear. They paused for the night in a different state, a different town. A sign said _Flagstaff_. Grace turned back to look at the sign: in one piece, its green paint fresh, not pockmarked or blasted. The town it named was framed by mountains, pine trees. The sun was just setting, vivid with orange and hot pink. Behind them, blue night stole among the hills and pines, set off the warm, plentiful street lights. To a soldier from 2042, the entire view was a perfect piece of the past.

Grace saw Sarah, in the passenger seat now, her mouth pressed hard in thought. Dani, driving, was tight with concentration. Neither of them seemed to see how beautiful this was, not even when they pulled into a motel where the neon sign spilled soft, powdery light.

At their motel, after unpacking the vehicle in one go, Grace said, “Hold up. I need to check something.” In the motel’s parking lot, the emerging stars had drawn her eye. Another sense had been alerted, too.

Grace stepped onto the asphalt. Inhaling deeply, she activated her Augment’s combat overlay. Tracking. She found it within seconds.

Sarah drifted up behind Grace, almost silently, a firearm at her side. “What?”

“Found it. To our right.”

Sarah tensed. Grace let her, drew it out so that Sarah snapped, again, “What?”

“I don’t know. But from their heat signature, they’re cooking, and it smells amazing.”

Sarah stiffened with outrage, then laughed. “I forgot. You haven’t eaten in two entire hours!”

By now, Dani had joined them. “Sarah! I am hungry, too. It does smell good. We will go see.”

They didn’t need to go far. Fifty yards down the road, behind a gas station, a small building had a smaller sign that flashed: HOT FRIED CHICKEN.

“You have not had fried chicken yet, no?” said Dani. “It is very North American.”

“No,” Grace said. She rolled up the sleeves of her t-shirt. “But I’m going to.”

“Prepare for impact,” Sarah muttered.

Ten minutes later, Grace was at a tiny, colorful table, elbow-deep in a bucket of discovery. In Grace’s time, chicken and wheat flour had been luxuries. Fried chicken _combined_ the two, sealing chicken in a hyperdelicious shell of grease and crisped flour. After stripping the meat from her fifth piece, she looked up. Dani was watching Grace so fondly, Grace’s heart almost broke. She was actually glad Sarah was there to derail that with her own pained, incredulous look. Through a mouthful, Grace tried to explain. “This is incredible.”

“I’ll say,” Sarah said. Grace didn’t see how Sarah could frown when she was eating a piece of pie she’d declared was “almost pure sugar.” Yet another insane luxury. Grace kept eating while she could.

Oddly, they all agreed on what they were doing the next day: visiting the Grand Canyon. Sarah had wanted Dani to see it. Dani had heard about it. Grace had a dim, precious memory of going there with her family before Legion.

They got up in the dark, drove quietly, arrived to watch the sun rise. Light spilled over the hills, down the cliffs. It revealed a world of stone, but of color, too. The vast, striped cliffs were free of the nuclear ashes that had veiled Grace’s time in mourning. This stone was alive with all the colors that made Dani beautiful, tawny tan, madder-rose, deep brown. When the sun was up, the sky’s blue was so clear, it was nearly painful.

They hiked one of the trails, Dani and Grace both, slow, wondering, pausing to watch bugs and birds, reading every sign. Other groups tumbled past them. Sarah was wary at first, but soon settled. “Assholes. They only see what they’re looking at through their cameras. Good thing that doesn’t include us.”

Sarah steamed ahead and doubled back repeatedly. She rejoined them as they paused at one of the view spots. “John fucking loved this place. This was the America I grew up with, a government that gave half a fuck, not the shit we’re dealing with now. This was...” Sarah rested her hand on one of the helpful signs. Stared out over the wonderland of stone. “This was why.”

They stood there for a time, in a long, welcome silence.

At first, when Sarah started talking again, set off by a quote on the sign, Grace blocked her out. “Edward Abbey. Fuck, I haven’t thought of him in years. He was a grade-A asshole, but he could write. Places like this were his thing. First time I read him – I was younger than you, Dani – I thought, what would _I_ monkeywrench? Blow up to make the world better?” Grace started paying attention. “Then a Terminator came after me, and Kyle said a company called Cyberdyne was responsible for it, and I knew…”

“And you changed fate,” Dani said, kindly. Dani slipped her hand into Grace’s, turned up to Grace with a quick wink. Her lovely eyes narrowed as she peered even higher. Softly, she said, “There are birds, up there.”

Grace turned. Her Augmented eyes saw them clear: raptors, black and white. For Dani to see them, they had to be vast. She honed her vision, caught a picture to name them later. And, heart aching again, pressed Dani’s hand. 

* * *

The next day, Dani was driving. She liked it.

She pulled them over at a farm stand. If Grace was going to eat everything she saw, they should make it something good. She spent ten minutes at the mango crates chatting to a _viejita_ , who insisted on picking mangoes out for her. A taste of home, in more ways than one.

She pulled them over at a rest stop. Sarah took it as a chance to lecture her about America’s decline, people not able to afford rent, good things for their children. Which meant that, when Dani pulled them over on the way out for a hitchhiking girl, Sarah couldn’t complain. “Someone gave us a ride, back in Mexico. Now, we give someone a ride.”

The girl was younger than Dani, wearing pajama pants. Grace, after giving her a nod, pulled on her denim jacket, didn’t say much. Clearly, she was not a Terminator-level threat. Sarah boxed her against a door in the back seat and grilled her. “Are you trying to get serial killed? We could be criminals. Terrorists on the run.” The girl got her own back, without knowing it, when she said, _Oh, no, ma_ _’am._ Sarah loathed that.

They took her all the way to her home, a small town on the edge of Native American land. Dani picked up lots of brochures there, to read later. Maybe places like that would need help after Judgement Day – or be helpful, with what they knew and remembered. 

When they crossed the border to Nevada, and the speed limit changed, Dani got to drive really fast. She liked that, too. Grace said they’d at least stopped going slow. Sarah said Dani was trying to turn her hair entirely white. 

That night’s motel room had a television that, for once, didn’t irritate Grace’s fine-tuned hearing. Sarah flipped through the movie guide and found something. “This’ll be worth watching. A preview of the future. _The Road._ John and I watched all this post-apocalyptic shit, when he was alive…”

They lasted fifteen minutes. _The Road_ was horrifically grim. Dani didn’t know if it was that, or remembering her son, that made Sarah gray and remote as they watched. When Dani saw Grace losing color, too, felt her stiffen, she said, “I see why you watched these, Sarah. But I do not need to see more to understand.” She took the remote, changed the channel. “Tonight I want a break. We’re going to watch Yodito.”

“Who?” said Grace and Sarah, together. Glaring at each other brought them back to the present.

“Yodito! You do not remember, Grace? In the show _The Mandalorian?_ ”

“I can’t remember shit if it wasn’t important.”

“Sarah! _Star Wars?_ The new TV show?”

Sarah said, “TV is for kids and news.”

Dani settled in anyway. At first, she was a little sad, because she’d watched this for the first time with Diego and Papi. But it was impossible to not smile when Yodito, cuter than any real child, toddled on screen. She could learn strategy and save the world and enjoy this, too.

Grace, after the first episode, said, “It looks like the future…if the future was OK.” Later on she added, several times, “I like _her._ ” When Grace said that, Dani enjoyed nestling against her own super-soldier.

Sarah, restless at first, quit cleaning guns when she got pulled in by the droid lines. She watched intensely as the main character wrought intense mayhem for the story’s small, important child. Finally, Sarah said, “He’s hot under the helmet, right?”

“I think it is ventilated,” Dani said.

“That is not what I meant,” Sarah said. Three hours later, she was coiled beside Dani on the bed, gesturing at the screen. “Of course they reprogrammed the robot! It’s either that or destroy them.”

Deadpan, Grace said, “I have spoken.” 

Sarah caught that. “Don’t make that a thing. Do _not_ make that a thing – “

Dani muffled her giggles in Grace’s shoulder.

* * *

The Las Vegas sidewalk put a spring in Sarah’s stride. Despite the city’s tech upgrade, neon swapped out for vast screens, cars bloated and glossy, the place was still vividly trashy, hot and crazy. More like home, to Sarah, than what Los Angeles was now. She bounced on the toes of her combat boots, impatient, as both Dani and Grace got their bearings. “C’mon. Equipment time. Let’s get you two set up with the good shit.”

The clothes. “Motorcycle gear’s the next best thing to military stuff. Plus it’ll fit you better, Dani.” Where they went, smitten staff fell over themselves to bring Dani and Grace reinforced jeans, shirts that were close to bulletproof, leather jacket after leather jacket. Dani fell for a black leather number softened by a shearling collar. After trying every men’s jacket in the place, Grace picked black, too, with sleeves that could zip away.

As Sarah tried to decide if Grace in black leather was good (she was fierce) or bad (she was unforgettable), Dani tapped Sarah’s elbow. Silently, she held out a jacket for Sarah to try. In front of Dani’s smile, Sarah bit back _I_ _’m too old_ and _I don_ _’t wear brown_. She tried it, and - fuck. It was perfect. Tough, but understated. Sarah wore it to the counter as they settled the four-figure bill. Carl’s bank account could buy her a jacket.

The drugs. “Play nice with the doctor, Grace. He’s as bent as the three of us together. I told him last time you’re a veteran and the VA just doesn’t understand your special needs. Stick to that and roll with anything else.” In the waiting room, she and Dani sat on the edges of their chairs, listening to Muzak. Sarah amused herself by seeing how little eye contact the other people waiting could put up with. When Grace emerged from the doctor’s office, they went to three different pharmacies, maxing out prescriptions as long as Grace’s arm.

The weapons. “We’re going off the Strip for this – off the grid, in fact. You’re gonna meet some people who live like I do. They’re reasonably nuts.”

From a handful of Quonset huts on an industrial back lot, Gus dealt misplaced military-grade weapons. After whatever he’d done in the Gulf War, Gus didn’t pay attention to much except ordnance specifications, being paid cash, and chili recipes. He never got mad. There were always hangers-on there, other gun freaks, young men at loose ends, happy to do that for him.

Sarah asked him to set up each of them with two sets of artillery-level ordnance. Gus delivered. He couldn’t help spending the most time with Dani. “Now for a high-caliber easy-carry, and your little hands, this is your number. Sig Sauer. All metal, but the recoil’s under control. You’ll want to practice. But I’m guessing our mutual friend’ll have you covered…” Gus looked over Dani’s shoulder. Sarah met his eyes and smiled, grimly.

After spending a high five figures, they were invited to stay for chili and cards. “I’ve had this pot of chili going since 1993. Gets better the whole time. Still cheat at poker, Sarah?” Sarah said _fuck you_ and _of course_ and sat through a few hands, deliberately losing.

That took some work when Gus and his hangers-on were so distracted. Sarah wasn’t beautiful anymore. She hadn’t known it when she was, but she’d felt it when she’d lost it. Mostly, she didn’t miss it. Invisibility was a relief. But this day with Grace and Dani showed Sarah that you could borrow beauty. Having beauty by your side, as your companion, listening to what you said, cast its flattering light on you. She made a note to tell Dani this.

Driving back, Sarah did. She and Dani broke the whole encounter down: the risk, how the hangers-on positioned themselves to cover Gus, the social side. “Nice job letting them mansplain at you. You can show them you mean business next time.” She glanced back. “Grace, you took one for the team with that chili. We’ll get you something decent tonight to make up for it.”

“What if we went to one of those places they have here, where you can eat everything? The name is…” Dani snapped her fingers, trying to remember. “It is a thing of Las Vegas…”

“An all you can eat buffet? You want to take Grace to an all you can eat buffet?” Sarah paused. “Tomorrow. Lunchtime. And we leave town RIGHT after.”

Dani beamed adoringly at Grace. “You will love it.”

Sarah bared her teeth. “They are not going to know what hit them.”

Grace leaned forwards. “If we’re not going now, what are we doing tonight?”

"I'm sure you two will come up with something."

* * *

A day later, Sarah was lighting a cigarette outside a motel room. Sarah always steered them to older motels, like this. They had a better chance of being family businesses, taking cash, keeping you off a nationwide database. Each room in the pink stucco building had a porch with two rusting metal chairs. Sarah spared her bones by standing to smoke.

It was the first time their racially mismatched trio hadn’t received looks checking in. They were on the California side of the border, on the way to Los Angeles. As America tightened, California was still more tolerant than other places. A good thing, with the three of them getting ready to check out their new base tomorrow.

Things could have gone wrong on this trip. Any one of them getting busted after the horrors at the border. A Terminator hunting Dani down again. Sarah’s contacts having a grudge, backstabbing her. Some asshole hating Grace for being strong and tough and dykey as fuck: some jerk hitting on Dani. None of that had happened. Instead, Dani was happy, relaxed and loose-limbed, in a way Sarah hadn’t seen since Dani’s uncle died. Grace, after ravaging a buffet, was still wary, but calm about it, like a well-fed wolf. It had been a real breather.

Sarah filled her lungs with smoke at that, exhaled. She could look back and appreciate it. She wouldn’t assume it would stay that way going forwards. Couldn’t make that mistake. She had once before, and…

 _“Que noche, eh?”_ Sarah spun. A portly man, around her age, was straining one of his porch’s chairs by perching with a cigar. He smiled under his mustache.

_“Si, si. Buena para bachita.”_

He smiled again, stubbing out the last inch. _“Buenas noches,”_ he said, and heaved himself back into his room.

Again, nothing had gone wrong. He’d just been a civilian. A person. Talking to her. That hadn’t happened to Sarah much, these past few years. Something had changed. Sarah could see it in the mirror. Her face, her body language, were less forbidding.

Thanks to Dani and, goddamn it, Grace, Sarah had changed her fate. She was back with the rest of humanity. The way she hadn’t been since John was alive. She knew she’d pay for it. A world of hurt was waiting; the doom of Judgement Day. Grace had never told them which day, exactly. Sarah thought she already knew.

Their room’s door opened. Grace peered out. Dani peeped around her shoulder. Sarah stubbed out her own smoke, went to join her future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edward Abbey was a former park ranger, a nature writer and a rebel in his way. Two of his best known books are _Desert Solitaire_ (holds up) and _The Monkeywrench Gang_. The latter is one of those 70s books that is hard to bring forwards, sticky with the dirty amber of 70s sexism. But n its time, _Monkeywrench_ made eco-terrorism look so good it inspired the activist group Earth First! I can see a younger Sarah reading it and being both pissed off and inspired. 
> 
> A little Spanish:  
>  _“Si, si. Buena para bachita.”_ = Yeah, it's (an okay night for) a smoke.


	9. ok boomer (genfic)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the darkness right after Judgement Day, Dani is trying to rally a Resistance. It’d go a lot better if someone didn’t say to Sarah, “OK boomer!”
> 
> Genfic with warnings for recent postapocalypse, humans being humans, and a broken nose…a prompt fill for jstrskq on Tumblr.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little prompt fill I originally posted on Tumbl. The prompter wanted Sarah helping Dani train resisters, and a moment where somebody got taught a lesson about what you don't say to Sarah Connor. Here you go!

Sarah cast a sour eye over the people Dani had brought together, lingering below a cabin’s back porch. “These are your new recruits? Three families hauling kids, five e-sports dweebs, and a goddamn yoga teacher?”

Dani stood as tall as she could. “You taught me how to fight. You can teach them. The yoga lady is fit, strong. E-gamers, good with shooting games, maybe they are good with guns, too. The families are teams already.”

Sarah huffed. “Grace said you turned scavengers into a militia. She had a point. People need to hit rock bottom before they work together.”

“Like you worked with Grace and Carl and I?” asked Dani.

Sarah ignored that. “This batch isn’t there yet. Too soon.” 

Judgement Day had been a month ago. Even in this Sierra Nevada hideaway, between a mountain and a lake, the airwaves remained pure static, the skies gray as charcoal. Except that the skies had been sparked with red lights, lately: mysterious objects, flying low. Not everyone who saw them survived.

Dani felt tears prick her eyes. “These are the people brave enough to open their doors.” The doors that didn’t open would haunt her for the rest of her life. “The ones who still care, though their world is destroyed. They are the ones who can start to resist with me. With us!”

Sarah’s ravaged face did not lift with inspiration. “If we weren’t getting fucking proto-Terminators already…” She sighed, shook her head, opened their own door. “Here goes nothing.”

Dani slipped out in front of Sarah. She did her best to not wring her hands. “Thank you all for coming. I am Dani, I was on the neighborhood watch before the crisis, and this is Sarah. We are family. She is a, a very, very good fighter. A veteran.” She wasn’t lying: Sarah had survived her own long war against the Terminators. “You came here to help us defend ourselves. With Sarah, we begin.”

Sarah, unlike Dani, came down from the porch, one step at a time, slow, deliberate, well-armed. Dani couldn’t help remembering the first time she’d seen Sarah, getting out of a car, prepared to attack a Terminator. Some of the people, especially the children, gaped like Dani had, then.

Sarah lifted a bottle of liquor. “First, who wants vodka?” Every adult raised their hand, including the yoga teacher. Sarah threw her the bottle. She caught it. “Send it ‘round. Second, don’t pull any shit with us around supplies. By the time we’re done, you won’t try to take a used Kleenex off me – and nobody’ll try the same with you. Dani wants me to show you how to fight. That’s what we’re here for. Any questions?”

The yoga teacher raised her hand. “If you’re a veteran…maybe you know…where are those drones coming from? The ones with the red lights. What are they?” 

A suburban dad, feral with stubble, added, “Yeah, we lose wireless and get nuked and fight off looters and thendrones attack? What the fuck?”

Sarah said, “Those drones are hunter-killers. Their goal is to kill people, pure and simple. There’s a malicious artificial intelligence behind them that wants the world. They’re its second wave.”

“Aw, come on,” one of the e-gamers jeered. He turned his baseball cap backwards.

His housemate elbowed him. “It makes sense! If it was humans nuking humans we’d never’ve lost wireless first.”

Sarah glanced around. “Any other questions?”

The e-gamer swaggered to stand face to face with Sarah. “Yeah. Cool gear. You got guns for us?”

Sarah glared. “None of you are getting ordnance ‘till you get some self-defense basics down. Forget multitasking. Against the - drones - each of you is gonna have one goal. One!”

“That’s not how I won the HyperFight Tournament.”

Sarah inhaled like an outraged lion, but kept the breath in. “You pick that goal for yourself. Sometimes that goal is surviving. Not being seen. Those machine motherfuckers can hear you, sense your body heat. They have radar – “

The e-gamer crooned, “Ooooh, _radar._ OK boomer!”

Dani almost missed what happened next, because she’d blinked. Sarah whipped around and kicked the e-gamer in the crotch. As he doubled over from that, Sarah elbowed his face. They all heard the crack of bone against skull. Contorted with pain, he fell to his knees.

There was ten seconds of disbelieving silence. Then, the e-gamer bawled, “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

His gaping friend said, stating the obvious, “She broke Trev’s nose!”

A kid burst into tears, too, darting away from the group. “Lila!” her dad called, dashing after her.

Sarah put her hands on her hips, staring down the others. “You didn’t like that.”

The yoga teacher cried, “No!”

Sarah growled, “Then why didn’t one of you goddamn _stop_ him? Stop me?” All of them lowered their eyes, embarrassed. Sarah went on, voice rough to the edge of breaking. “You got nuked, you’re being hunted by drones, and you’re still pulling this kind of shit? Letting it happen? This is it. Act or die.”

Dani felt them all waver. She stepped up, pulled the e-gamer to his feet. “Right now, you get another chance. Out there, if a drone sees, you do not. So. Listen to each other! Work with us, all of us! Then, we fight them. Together.” Dani offered the hapless e-gamer the vodka. He took it.

The suburban dad came back with his kid, still sniveling but calm, now. Patting the child on the shoulders, he asked, “Those drones got a name?”

Sarah met his eyes. “Call them…Terminators.”


	10. the list (genfic)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soldiers are soldiers, past, present, or future…and Grace learns from a mentor how that includes Augments. A prompt fill for direquail. 
> 
> Genfic with some Grace-yearning-for-Dani, some sex discussion, and a male Augment original character.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Direquail asked for a ficlet based on my Tumblr post around [Augmented Skippy's List](https://thebyrchentwigges.tumblr.com/post/612617351475707904/augmented-skippys-list-2042) \- ten things Resistance Augments are no longer allowed to do. So, meet the Augment responsible for that list, and see what he had to teach a newly-augmented Grace!

Grace is swaying in her seat on the transport, watching Hadrell, unit commander and Augment. He’s still bright-eyed. His skin has a healthy glow. Grace is glad Hadrell and his stiff upper lip are in charge. After the battle they’ve survived, she’s a wreck, sick with exhaustion and misery.

Hadrell roars into the radio. “Carrying precious cargo.” Grace can’t help looking down, at her feet and what’s beside them. A woman on a stretcher, bandages matted with blood. Their Commander. Her Dani.

Grace catches Hadrell saying something about hostiles at the landing site. Shit. She uses every ounce of willpower to pull herself together.

Hadrell’s eyes flick over them all, weighing each of them in an instant. As his eyes flick over her, there’s an uncanny flash of green, followed by Hadrell’s stream of orders. He lists every soldier on the transport, their role in what’s coming next. She’s the last one. “Harper, stick to the Commander. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers…”

It’s the only thing Grace has heard Hadrell say that isn’t on duty-point. He’s read her like a book to keep her at Dani’s side. Has he read her ID card, too, marked AUGMENT OPTION? That would be like him. She’ll ask him later.

She never gets the chance. He’s dead seven minutes later. Nine minutes later, she thinks she is, too.

But she’s not.

* * *

It’s four months later. Grace is a new Augment, packed with metal and tech from her bones out, healed enough to be thrown headlong into duty. Two weeks of training felt rushed, but the Resistance needs every minute of her. She’s twitchy, janky, self-conscious. Dani’s not happy she’s become an Augment: is quiet and withdrawn about it. Grace has got to show Dani this was worth it. What’s happening now is the first step.

Bases are cramped. Grace slides into the chow hall, an all-purpose area for eating, meeting, and waiting. Her new Augment input instantly overloads with information. But it also shows her where one other Augment is, tucked into a back corner. Grace heads over. On the way, her enhanced hearing decides, for reasons Grace doesn’t understand, to hone in on one voice.

It’s a low roll of laughter that breaks for, “Oh, man. Oh, that’s the shit. That’s worth Skippy’s List. Y’ever hear of Skippy’s List? No? _Skippy_ _’_ _s List: 213 Things Skippy Is No Longer Allowed To Do In The Army._ Back from when we were an Army, ‘stead of a Resistance. Shit like, ‘I am not allowed to tell new enlistees I have super powers.’ I need my own version of that, man, ‘cause I _do_ have super powers now!” The rolling laugh, again.

Grace finds who she’s seeking, and the voice and the Augment signal align on one person. He’s the same thirtyish age Hadrell had been, white like her and Hadrell, and that’s where the resemblance ends. Except for the white scars, the man looks like he’s waiting to hear how many demerits he’d accrued for being out of uniform, sleeves hacked away, exposing raw muscle and a jumble of heavy tattoos.

He sees her (and there’s more to it than mere sight, Grace knows now: the layers, the sound, the flashing readings). He knows, too.

After he waves off the people he’s talking to, Grace clears her throat. “I’ve been assigned an Augment mentor. Are you...” His name on the assignment slip was Szewczykowski. Nobody had been able to help Grace pronounce that. He’d been transferred after Hadrell’s death.

Her silence makes him chuckle. “Yeah. Everyone gives up and calls me Aaron.” He runs a hand over his stubble, drags his feet off a table. “You’re the latest release, huh? Version 3.0, Grace Madison Randolph Harper. Nice to meet ya. First things first: you’re gonna want to lose the sleeves.”

Grace said, “We’re supposed to be in uniform.”

Aaron ignores that. He looks her over, too, lazy and amused. She catches that greenish glint, again. “Second, what’s your Augment story? Why’d you plow through the process?”

Grace goes rigid. “I – I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

Aaron puts his feet back up. “Figure something out ‘cause folks are going to ask. Constantly. All the time. I want a little speaker, right in my chest, so I can have a file play. Not made into a robot. Not a hunter-killer. I’m a person, with some replacement parts. Just Enhanced. Totally extra, dude! _Thpethial!_ _”_ Grace winces.

“Third, when they’re around, nosh with the other Augments. That way you don’t get the stink-eye about your tray having double rations. Doesn’t happen much, the way they deploy us keeps us busy, but you’ll see…”

It takes her another hot, uncomfortable day to realize he’s serious about the sleeves.

* * *

The outrage of Grace’s first conversation with her mentor sends her to seek Dani out. In this base, their sleep slots are close, now. Being Augmented came with a promotion. Despite this, Grace has been holding back.

Grace makes her way through the dim, improvised warren, brooding. She’s barely had a sexual thought since she opened her eyes after surgery. The pain and drugs are the obvious reasons. Still. Maybe being Augmented has done what months (or years) of duty apart, other lovers, an ocean of grief couldn’t do: get Grace over wanting Dani too much. There’s been times when that would have been a relief. On the edge of it being real, it’s suddenly a loss.

When she knocks ‘her’ way on Dani’s door, it opens. Dani’s weary face lights up. “Grace! It’s been so long. How are the…the Augmentations?” She steps back, inviting her in.

Dani’s not mad at her tonight, to treat her like this. “They’re good.”

Hearing Grace’s flatness, Dani’s mouth quirks. She closes the door. “They set you up with Aaron for a mentor?”

Grace’s floodgates open. “Yeah, and I don’t know what I did to deserve this, because the guy’s – he’s – how did they pick an asshole like him to be an Augment?”

Dani says, “When I found out you were … that you’d… I asked for him for you.”

Grace snaps, “To punish me?” She regrets it immediately. She’s acting like a teenager again.

Dani reacts like she did back when that was true: with patient kindness. “To give you the best chance I could. He’s the oldest surviving Augment.”

“Oh.”

Dani meets her eyes. “Do you want to change? Him, that is.”

“No, no, it’ll be fine. I’ll, we’ll work it out.” It’s hard for Grace to stay angry, experiencing Dani like this, through her Augments. Sweet, sad eyes detailed as jewels, soft accent amplified, her hand trembling on Grace’s arm. New ways to perceive Dani, heat and movement readings. Oh, she’s not over it. She never will be. Not after the body-blow of this high-res version of Dani. It heats her up twice as fast as it used to. Damn it, this is why Aaron told her to get rid of her sleeves.

To keep Dani talking, Grace asks, “How are you?” And watches, listens, senses, fascinated.

* * *

A week later, Aaron freaks Grace out by sending her an Augment-to-Augment ping. It scrolls across her field of vision, letters in green light: MEET UP 22:00 VEHICLE DEPOT AARON. It sends her hustling from her sleep slot after her squad’s curfew. Is it some training thing? An emergency? Why wasn’t his alert tagged with his last name? Darker suspicions tug at her. She arms herself before going.

The skeleton crew at the vehicle depot avert their eyes, like she’s not there. Grace winces at that, and at the readings each one’s movements set off. One of them surprises her. “He’s out back.” Grace goes where he gestures, out a side door. Aaron is there, warming his hands over a burn barrel.

“Hey, you made it!” Firelight shadows make his muscles threatening, turn his head into a skull. His light, cheerful voice is at odds with that. Something else is, too: the hundred subtleties Grace sees and makes sense of, until she starts to think about them and freeze.

Aaron goes on. “It’s my third Augment-iversary. Been Augmented for three years. I’m a big boy now! Gonna celebrate!”

Grace relaxes slightly. Nobody this ridiculous is trying to get laid. “Why here?”

“You’re all caged in, this base, close to toaster territory.” It’s true. The vehicle drive is one of the few parts of the base open to the sky, and it’s fenced in metal gridding on all sides and above. “I like being outside. Setting things on fire.”

Grace folds her arms to her chest. “Why me?”

“You’re the only other Augment on the base…” Fireshadow makes Aaron’s eyes dark, human pits. “I was one of the first ten. Augments, that is. Not gonna lie: it was being a robot guinea pig or a court-martial. They said they were gonna make us supermen. I give ‘em credit for trying. Six of us made it through the procedure. That’s why they do the bone replacement first, now – it’s a real killer.”

Grace feels a chill. Perhaps Aaron does, too. He holds his hands out over the barrel’s flames. “Four of us made it through having the headwire stuff go online. Whatever you do, don’t kill yourself, mkay?”

Grace begins, “I would never –”

“Good. Sucks for the rest of us. We were stuck as lab rats for another month, test after test so it wouldn’t happen again. We had to tell them, hey, we fucking hurt.”

Grace lets him go on. “They split us up, tucked us into different units to see what we did. Lord, we did. Asteron fought off six Rev-7s in his squad. A seventh one dragged him off the hoverflyer at two hundred feet. We don’t survive that. Sio went hand-to-hand with a Rev-9. We have a fifty-fifty of surviving that. Sio didn’t. Reece got this necrosis thing around the metal bones. He went out with a bang before that killed him. When his squad got trapped, he ripped out his power source. They used it as a bomb.”

Aaron folds one hand around his left side, above his kidney: where his power source is. Grace realizes she’s doing that, too.

They both jerk their heads towards the door behind them at the same time, hearing sounds, catching alerts. Suddenly cheerful, Aaron calls, “Hey, Ern! Whatcha got for us?” He lifted a plastic bag of pills. “Got some good shit to swap.”

Grace steps back as one of the base’s disreputables joins them. With a half-toothed grin, he lifts a bottle. “Domo arigato, Mister Roboto.” Whatever the bottle holds ripples glassy in the light. “Only the best for you. Brewed from real 'taters!” He offers it to Grace. “Ladies first?”

“No ladies here.” She takes it.

“Uh, with our meds, go a li’l easy,” Aaron says.

Grace ignores that to drink like all the troops do, long and deep. It doesn’t hurt as much as usual, and she doesn’t cough as she passes Aaron the bottle.

Ten minutes of smoky chatter later, the liquor hits her like a memory. Getting hammered to the sand by a wave as a child, before beaches became Hunter-Killer grounds. Except the wave is inside her head, her bones. She can ignore the alert-flickers, the deep-throbbing pain in her own bones, raised by Aaron’s Augment story. She separates the bottle from Ern's grip and drinks again.

* * *

The next morning, Aaron shoulders up to Grace in the chow hall, scruffy as before, still smelling like smoke. “How’s it going, young padawan? Not getting hangovers rules, am I right?”

Grace hunches over her loaded food tray. “Can you keep it down? I’m trying to not get more demerits after your idea of a celebration.”

Aaron thunks down across from Grace, pouting. “When regular grunts go on a rip they’re ‘letting off steam’. When we do it we’re ‘violating our terms of service.’ Fuck ‘em.” He attacks his own tray.

They take five minutes for serious calorie input. Finally, with his mouth still full, Aaron mumbles, “Demerits and shit? Don’t worry. This is it. This is as good as it gets. I ain’t keeping a record clean to get promoted because there is no promoted from here. We have a six-to-eighteen month life expectancy and if we go out like we’re s’posed to, it’s a fireworks show. They will put up with almost any shit from us.”

Grace swallows. “We’re part of the other troops. We’ve got to have standards.”

Aaron says, “Why?”

 _Dani,_ Grace thinks. Aloud, she says, “Show them we haven’t given up. Not nukescum or traitors. Not…” _Not Machines._

Aaron scratches one of his arm tattoos, bisected by an Augmentation scar. “I joined the Resistance up north. Didn’t hear ‘em say ‘nukescum’ half as much up there.”

Grace doesn’t have a reply to that. They pack more food in. Aaron breaks the silence again. “You okay? You look buggy. You’ve got the twitch.” He puts two fingers around one eye, pulls it revoltingly wide. “The eyelid twitch. Is it a wired muscle, something infected? An alert?”

Grace jumps on the last one. “The alerts, or whatever they are.”

Aaron grins. “That, I can fix. Save your benzos for a couple days. Ern told me who runs bootleg shit on your IT crew. They can transfer over some hacks I got.”

Grace stares. “But they told us – if we don’t take all our meds –“

Aaron leans in. Quieter than usual, he says, “You’ll survive. Half of ‘em, we need – and half of ‘em, I think they want us to need.”

Grace goes cold with outrage, and it’s not at Aaron, this time. Still low, he says, “There’s what they made us. And there’s how we survive what they made us. Capiche?”

 _Dani,_ Grace thinks again. Dani _had_ to know this man’s record. The fighter who’d mentored her, raised her, saved her, hadn’t wanted her to become an Augment. But now that Grace had, this man was a message to her. _Please survive. Whatever it takes._

She tells Aaron, “I’m listening.”

* * *

They’re in a hoverflier. Aaron has been talking Grace through how the Augmentations connect with a ‘flier, help her navigate and see Machine threats in the skies.

Grace is piloting. She loved flying, before. Augmentation gives her more to love about it. Her vision pierces the sky, lights its shadows: a new sense like radar rings the vault of heaven. Aaron’s not flying, but he feels what Grace does. “It’s okay up here, innit? Like we’re part of the future for ten minutes. ‘Stead of the end of the world. Starship troopers.”

Grace taps the console, mouth tight, then says, “Can you stick to business, Captain? I don’t get these…references…of yours.”

“Sorry. Lieutenant.” He adds, “Got a bunch of old movies and stuff in my Augment memory. If you want a rip, lemme know.” Grace does not reply.

When Aaron says, “Get ready to take us down. I got some coordinates,” and flashes them over, Grace doesn’t reply then, either. But she doesn’t need to.

She feels the tiny receptors beneath her round scar-dots tingle, sees the data as she receives it. Magnetic pads in the aircraft’s yoke pick up Grace’s intent. The hoverflyer jinxes like she’s it, it’s _her_ , its flight randomizing to protect them. They’ll never fly the same path to a destination twice. If they do, a Machine will be hovering in the flight path. The hoverflyer’s design is half-stolen from their enemies, half-improvised by humanity’s handful of mad scientists – the ones who’ve come out of their bunkers to work with the Resistance. Some still haven’t.

Suddenly, their flight path stops, and the flier plummets straight down. They land in a blasted bowl of land, the dead, telltale gray of a nuke zone. On the western horizon, Grace catches the broken teeth of a ruined city. East, there are mountain foothills, their cloak of dead forest thinning out. Gray dust devils skirl over it all.

They disembark. Grace inhales. They didn’t Augment her sense of smell, but it’s still fresh and cold here. “Where was this?”

Aaron points west. “Over there, they used to call Seattle. And, now that we’re here...activate everything.”

Grace looks at him. Aaron gives her his incongruous, boyish smile. “I mean it! Everything you’ve got, bring it online. I will, too. Ready? Three...two...one.”

It’s not dramatic – at least, not since she uploaded Aaron’s hacks. All Grace does is tap her middle finger, on each hand, against the ball of her thumb there. Suddenly, her vision is framed in green and red, her full combat overlay of sensors and data readings. A wind she hadn’t heard before hisses through the dead trees two kilometers away. Through her boots, she feels the pebbles underfoot.

“It’s too much on a base. But out here, it’s okay, too, innit?”

Grace unclenches her hands. “Yes. It is.” In fact, the Augments make the desolation easier to bear, give it color and a sense of life.

Aaron spreads his arms out. “This is what they made us for. Fighting out here. When our folks are out here to fuck up some toasters, hide one of our receivers, get cargo from A to B, we’re hiding among them. Sur-priiiise! Machines love this fucked up shitscape here. It’s easy for ‘em. Us Augments, it’s easy for us, too - ” Aaron cuts himself off. Points northwest, with a jab, then drops his arms.

Grace sees what he meant. A Machine drone is approaching, higher than a human can see. Grace goes to shoulder her blaster, but Aaron stops her. It’s the first time he’s touched her. He reels away from her, peeling one eye wide, pointing up: they are being watched. All Aaron’s voices, human and Augment, are silent. But, silently, moving his mouth wide, he begins to count. _Five... four... three... two..._

Grace’s hyped vision catches his eyes’ flicker over her blaster. When he hits _one,_ she whips it up, fires, fireworking the drone out of the sky.

Aaron yodels, “Whooo-hooo! That’s the way!”

Grace beams. Aaron says, “Scan for a power signal – that'll be its black box.” Aaron has Grace send him the box’s coordinates, lopes the two hundred yards for it, comes back slower.

“Let’s evac,” Grace says. “Or am I missing something?”

She asks because Aaron is standing still, gazing east. He shakes himself. “Nah. After Judgement Day, I was holed up there for a while.” He points at the dead foothills. “Not on purpose. Got chucked outta school and my folks’ place at the same time. Gramma was letting me crash. She didn’t have much, but she had a trailer, a generator. Her TV and VCR were so old they made it through the nukes’ EMP blast. We watched ol’ movies, ate cans and raccoons for a year. Then the trees died, and the Machines...” Aaron lowers his arm, curls his hand into a fist. “You’re right. Stick to biz. Evac time.”

Thirty seconds later, they reel back into the sky. Half an hour later, back at the base, the cage opens to let them in.

The vehicle bay is packed. An entire other unit is there, milling around their own hoverfliers, getting ready to deploy or return or something. Grace is filling out the return checklist when her inner robot interrupts her. Defense notifications start scrolling below her vision. Here? She lifts her head, and that’s when it happens.

A dog starts barking at her. She whips around, braced. One of the visiting troops is holding onto the dog’s leash – one of the dogs trained to sniff out infiltrating Hunter-Killers, the Machines shaped like people. As the dog paws at the ground, straining towards her and Aaron, almost howling, its handler bawls, “Name and rank! Now! Security! Security check! Infiltrator risk!”

Grace’s vision lights up with every alert, because the visiting unit has turned, as one, to point weapons at her and Aaron. Grace feels herself go cold to the metal bone. Aaron’s the one who snaps, “Yeah, security! Jesus fucking Christ. Scan us and see. We’ve got tags, the works.” The alert takes half an hour to sort out.

They’re let into the base before the unit takes off, and they head for the chow hall. On the way, Aaron asks, “You were nukescum too, huh?”

At times, that’s been fighting words for Grace. She’s beyond that after what happened just now. "For a while. You saw my records.”

Aaron’s laugh is back already. “Me, read? It was your face when you saw the dog. Civilians are all _ohhh puppy!_ Soldiers see a K-9 unit, one of their own. You were all, _okay Cujo, are we gonna throw down?_ ”

Grace says, mildly this time, “You’re doing that shit again. The references.”

Aaron gasps. “Lieutenant Harper, I’m sorry. I apologize. I should’ve said _you_ were Cujo.”

Grace can’t help it. She laughs.

In the chow hall, there’s some canned fruit on the Augment trays. Suddenly, Grace finds herself saying, “My dad died right before the Machines came out...” She doesn’t stop for a while. Aaron’s quiet, for once, even when she catches up on putting food in her own face.

* * *

Grace has just landed a ‘flyer again. “Ready to disembark. Commander.” She raises the ‘flyer’s sides, waits for the squad to hop down. There’s more than one Commander in the Resistance, and the one with them today isn’t Dani. Grace is relieved. She’s still supposed to be by his side, protecting him. But she’s got to roust out Aaron first.

Aaron’s curled up on top of the hoverflier’s nuclear battery. She says, “Come on, Captain. Big boy time.”

“How can you be so cruel? This vehicle battery is the only mother I’ve ever known!” Aaron uncurls. “Try this sometime, the heat these things put out is great. Makes our bones quit aching.”

“I thought you were taking things seriously for five minutes.” He is wearing sleeves today, after all.

Aaron sticks those arms out in front of him. “I’m sorry, I can’t do that, Dave.” As Grace inhales, ready to explode, he says, “I know, another one for Augmented Skippy’s list. C’mon, let’s put on a show.”

In this world after Judgement Day, not everywhere’s a nuke zone. Not every place with people is a Resistance base. Today is something between tax collection and recruitment. This small town’s buildings are streaked with dark ash from hard rain, spaces in between packed with lean-tos, shipping containers, stalled RVs. Nineteen years after Judgement Day, awnings and clothes are tattered. It’s a mess. They’ve seen worse.

They catch up to this Commander. Against the weary grime, Grace catches how crisp the Resistance troops look, uniformly dressed, fed enough. Their job is to trail this Commander as he glad-hands, makes a speech about a handover of supplies: to stay close as he talks to the young and restless about joining up.

After the speech, Aaron clowns with the locals lined up for a word. “I know. You see us, and I know what you’re thinking: fuckin’ Starship Troopers.” There’s something to Aaron’s dumb references, Grace decides: that gets a laugh or two from older folks. “We’re not that bad, honest. See these scars of mine? I’m the Chosen One. Destined to save humanity!”

A young woman asks Grace, softly, “Are you like him, too?”

She nods. “I am human. Just enhanced.” That’s all she needs to say for the woman’s eyes to go wide, sparked with wonder. Then Aaron calls her over, drags her into his clowning by making her pick up a bunch of kids at once. She notices how he, carefully, doesn’t touch any of them.

At dusk, they're still waiting for the glad-handing to end. Aaron leans in to Grace, eyes a bag on her belt, an expandable piece of gear they all call the scav bag, that she's filled up. “Trade for anything cool?”

Grace says, “I thought I’d better grab this.” She opens the scav bag to reveal the metal of a Terminator skull.

“Nice! Present for your girlfriend.” Aaron snatches it and works its jaw. “Hellooooo nurse!”

Grace palms it back, hides it, wishes Augmentation had fixed her tendency to blush. She drops her voice to the whisper only another Augment can hear. “Not her, anymore. I didn’t think she’d – she said –anyway: it’s over.”

He whispers back. “Since you came back Augmented?”

Grace makes a noise of assent. “She said she knew what they did to me and she couldn’t deal.”

Aaron shrugs. “Didn’t want to, more like. Some people hate it. Some people are freaks for it. Mostly women sign up for it now, right?”

“It’s because of our immune systems – they told us,” Grace says. She wouldn’t have added the qualifier, before Aaron.

Aaron blows a raspberry. “Guys quit signing up ‘cause of cases like me. I can’t get it up anymore. Most Augment guys can’t. Nerve damage. Good thing those who are freaks for us don’t care! I stay busy.”

Grace has heard the rumors about him, the same way Aaron knows the latest in her string of luckless lovers was a nurse. She asks, “Why bother?”

Aaron snorts. “You don’t have a dick. Why do you do it?”

Grace crosses her arms. “Fine, I deserved that.”

They go on, talking about – and Grace knows it – everything and everyone but Dani, until this excuse for a Commander is finally good to go.

Back at the base, Grace says to Aaron, “Come see what I do with this.” He tags along as she takes the Terminator skull to Commander Ramos.

Dani's reaction is everything Grace hoped for. “Excellent work, Lieutenant. The lab will appreciate it.” Grace feels herself smile at Dani’s words. This was what she wanted Aaron to see. It’s important, somehow.

He sees, all right. Grace gets blasted by Aaron’s Augment-to Augment notification: SHE LIKES YOU!

Dani turns away from Grace’s rising blush to greet him, too. “Captain, good to see you, too. Did _someone_ tell you to cover your tattoos? Maybe _another commander?_ I can rescind that.”

Aaron scuffs a toe against the concrete. “Ah, I’m overdue for a flesh suit upgrade, is all. Just a little necrosis. I’ll let you two debrief. C’mander.” He backs away, fumbles a salute, turns to go, careens off a wall, leaves.

Dani touches her arm. “Is he all right?”

Grace frowns. Three months back, on the Seattle plain, he’d been smooth, agile. Today… “I’m not sure.”

She can barely think about Aaron, with the the way Dani’s hand lingers. _Some people hate it. Some people are_ _–_ Was there anything in between, Grace wondered, desperately.

* * *

The attack that cleared out the San Jose hive of Legion was a huge success. Dani’s strangely intuitive strategies had worked, as usual. Out of Dani’s three squads, one had set the key explosion that knocked out Legion’s most complex processing node. That wasn’t Grace’s squad. She felt solid anyway, after guarding Dani and keeping a clear zone for the intel unit, turning data to action seamlessly, taking down three Rev-7s and a flotilla of drones. This was what an Augment was supposed to do. To be.

With the battle over, duty pries Grace from Dani’s side. It is time for something only an Augment could do: scanning for other Augments. Dead ones. Humans would lose their advantage if the Machines got ahold of an Augment corpse. 

Grace paces through hollow city blocks, waiting for an Augment ping, getting nothing. Until she gets a black box signal.

That signal is what leads her to the Augment she'd feared was missing. Aaron.

His body is a hundred meters from the epicenter of whatever had happened. He's pale and drained: metal is showing through his flesh on his hands, his shoulders. The worst of his many injuries is where something had punched open his gut. Grace remembered the attack that had nearly killed her, the Rev-7 violating her with its tentacles, and shuddered. That wouldn’t have killed Aaron, though. She recalled the story he’d told her about what an Augment’s power source could do. How calm he’d been, always, about his death. His eyes were open wide, staring at something she couldn’t see. Yet.

Eight troops are backing Grace, but she carries him to the field camp herself. “One more for the list,” she says, quietly. “Szewczykowski.”

“Who?”

Grace shows them Aaron's full name on the blurry paper list. Makes them stow him on top of a ‘flyer’s power source for the ride. Sits next to him, when they bug out, to keep his body there. Aaron had been right. Warmth does help an Augment fight the pain.

Troops aren't supposed to move around a ‘flyer in motion, but nobody stops a Commander. Dani comes and joins Grace. “Lieutenant. You’ll be Captain, soon. I’m sorry about Aaron.”

“Commander. I’m sorry, too. He was – ” Grace’s throat shuts down, like she’s a teenager again. But she’s not. She can clear her throat, force past it. But it’ll never be in her to do it the way Aaron did, with a laugh. “A good person.”

Dani takes her hand. Her own warmth, the thrum of her pulse, the shiver in her touch – Grace knows enough now to put it all together, as an Augment. She lets it sink into her, along with her grief.


	11. the form (genfic)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your interest in the Augmented Defense Service Program. You must read and sign this data sheet to proceed. 
> 
> For the prompt 'would love to have seen the medical document Grace got about the Augment program!' The result is subtly laced with medical and postapocalyptic horror...with a dash of 'Buggre Alle This for a Lark' meets _Terminator._

## Consent Form for Augmented Defense Service Program Candidates

#### Thank you for your interest in the Augmented Defense Service Program

You’ve passed the first stage of security clearance around the Augmented Defense Service Program. To be a candidate, you need to sign this data sheet as proof that you have read it and understood it. You cannot have someone read this data sheet to you and qualify: you need basic literacy skills to use Augmented functions.

#### Support Our Resistance as a ‘Super Soldier’

Augmented Defense Service People, ‘Augments,’ are humanity’s finest made even better. Enhanced with physical and cybernetic implants to hone your sight and hearing, improve your reflexes, and increase your physical strength. 

In important operations, your presence makes all the difference. You’ll provide guidance, advanced security, and game-changing fighting abilities when in close contact with Hunter-Killer Machines.

You and your new strengths will be valuable to the Human Resistance and used to your full potential. When your Augmentation has optimal cosmetic results you will be embedded in units of soldiers invisibly. If you go through the Augmentation process and your cosmetic result does not support full stealth, other defense roles await you.

#### Augmentation Involves Surgery and Physical Changes

The process of becoming ‘Augmented’ is an investment –in you! Becoming Augmented requires extensive surgery. This is to place the sophisticated technological implants that enable Augmented functions.

Much of this surgery is similar to surgery you might experience after injuries from combat. Some of it is not. The Augmentation process takes six to eight weeks, but you will spend 50 to 75% of that time in a medically induced coma. The Augmentation process currently has an approximate variable-based success rate of 77%. An advantage of the process is that if it is not successful this is usually identified at early stages. If the medical team brings you out of the coma, you know you are on the road to Augmented service.

You’ll receive all the medication, support, pain killers, physical therapy, and drugs you need to return to active service as soon as possible.

#### Augments May Experience Side Effects

Augments are known to experience the following side effects. These are managed with physical therapy, medication, and an enjoyable high-calorie, high-fat diet. If you do not comply with your medical program, you may suffer:

  * Convulsions
  * Rhabdomylosis
  * High internal temperature
  * Nerve damage/loss of skin sensitivity
  * Phantom limb syndrome
  * Bone pain
  * Joint pain
  * Muscular pain
  * Pain around implant sites
  * Pain of indeterminate causes
  * Visual or audio hallucinations
  * Erectile or other sexual dysfunction
  * Necrosis around joints or cranial bones
  * Immune collapse



#### High Security and Confidentiality

As an Augment your operations and communications are under a higher security clearance. This especially applies to your use of wifi or radio-wave enabled comms between Augments.

All Augmented activities qualify as covert operations. Both human and Machine awareness of your Augmented status is a security risk unless previously cleared. You agree to maintain the highest possible levels of security around your abilities, your actions, your deployment, with the understanding that you may be asked to engage in supplemental operations that do not officially take place, with people that do not exit.

You will be a tool, a living weapon against Hunter-Killer Machines. You will be subject to few laws and, in return, have almost no rights. You’re playing at ‘human rights’ in your Resistance out there, so I’m putting this together. But if you sign this, that’s over for you. We’re all pretending at this point.

If you’ve read this far, nothing I can say will stop you. I’m in a tin can underground writing this for a bunch of kid soldiers who grew up eating rats. I’ve seen you die, just in the labs, and it’s ugly. But so is every death, after Judgment Day. I hope you make it through. I hope you win. I’d like to see the sky again.

#### Consent and Signature

I, the undersigned, meet the security, physical, literacy, and numeracy requirements to be an Augmented Defense Service Candidate. I wish to undergo the Augmentation process I if I am injured in a way that includes amputation, loss of hearing or vision, or other serious physical damage.

I consent to the Augmentation process, to any treatments or physical modifications involved, and to accept any and all assignments I receive from the Augmented Defense Service Program.

I understand that signing this form does not guarantee I will undergo the Augmentation process, which is based on available resources and candidate proximity to resources at time of injury.

_______________________________________

CANDIDATE NAME (PRINT)

_______________________________________

CANDIDATE SIGNATURE and DATE

\---------------------------------

CANDIDATE MORTALITY CONTACT


	12. The (other) augment (f/f explicit)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grace is getting the hang of being an enhanced super-soldier. Then another Augment winds up at her base – and with her, Grace learns more about her Augmented potential. F/F smut pairing Grace with an OC. Explicit!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor het and kink references at the start - soldiers are soldiers, after all.

Grace is in the mess hall, picking at her tray. She’s been Augmented for several months, now. The novelty of double rations has worn off.

Tonight, her home base is crowded with soldiers. A full troop is transiting through, relief for the war zone Grace left this morning. They’re loud, almost rowdy. They’ll be silent in every way tomorrow, with the discipline it takes to fight against Legion’s machines. For now, Grace flicks three fingers together. The volume of her hearing drops. She’s getting the hang of being enhanced.

She’s sitting with her Augment mentor, Aaron. He notices the micro-gestures. Rough and ready as ever, he says, “Better have ‘em loud than dead. Good to be back, huh?”

Grace says _mmmm_ absently, scanning the crowd, sharpening her senses to hone in on, well, short people. None of them are Dani. It’s to be expected. Commander Ramos can have a meal brought to her, if she’s busy. Ever since Grace became Augmented, Dani has been awfully busy. When Grace does run into her, Dani is quiet and evasive, except for her hammering heartbeat. Grace turns her hearing up, to catch that.

Aaron interrupts her unspoken yearning. “Gonna get laid tonight?”

Grace coughs, splutters, glares. _“Excuse me?”_

“You’re a soldier. You’re alive. Time to get loose. I hear your unit’s having,” Aaron pauses before saying, ripely, “A Party.”

“Not my thing,” Grace mutters.

“You like it private, huh? How ‘bout that guy who cornered you on the way in?”

Grace stabs her food. “That’s one of those freaks whose idea of a good time is me stomping on them. When I told him to fuck off, he offered me scrip.”

Aaron lights up. “Sounds like a live one! Mind if I take him?”

“Knock yourself out,” Grace mutters.

Aaron looks concerned. “I’ll lay off if your cards are aces.”

If, he means, Grace has decided she’s asexual. “Thanks. It’s not that, not nerve damage, it’s…” She stuffs her mouth to buy time.

As she does, Aaron says, “Hey! You should go with _her_.” Aaron dips his chin, eyes flashing – and does what only another Augment can do: sends her a hit of data.

After the quick-snap that flashes across her internal vision, Grace turns, carefully. Locks in on the _her_ that Aaron means. She’s tall: not Dani. Grace opens her mouth to shoot Aaron’s idea down – and stops. Considering, this once. Because _she_ is dark, and regal, and another Augment.

Grace hasn’t seen many other Augments since she left the medbase that creates them. This one is standing in the mess hall, holding her own double-heavy tray. By her crown of black curls, she’s been a super-soldier longer than Grace has. On her bare arms, the scar-lines are deep rose-brown, more intricate than Grace’s. She’s more awake than the grunts around her, radiant with the extra energy Grace feels under her own scarred skin. Her eyes are sparked with light, her full lips parted, slightly: she is sensuously overloaded. It’s a strange feeling for Grace, recognizing an Augment moment in somebody else. In another woman.

Then the other Augment twitches (in a way Grace nearly _feels_ ) and makes a beeline for another table. Maybe someone called her. Maybe she heard her name.

Maybe she’ll be around later.

She turns back to Aaron. He gives her a quick smirk, then taps her tray. “You gonna eat that?”

Grace is, suddenly, hungry. “Yes. I am.”

* * *

After dinner, Grace realizes she could’ve the other Augment her own ping in the mess hall. It hadn’t occurred to her. She’s still getting the hang of being enhanced, after all.

For a while, she strides around the crowded base, dodging parties and pairs in corners. Dani is still nowhere to be found. Grace keeps an eye out for the other Augment, too. Close to midnight, she gives up and goes to her officer’s hotbunk for the night. It’s right next to a bathroom, complete with mildew. At least Grace can hear when the bathroom is empty. When it is, she slips in for a shower on her own.

That takes some doing on the base. The few bathrooms have dark concrete walls, open shower areas. Grace dares to walk in with only a soap wafer and a tragic gray towel. After a week fighting, two minutes of tepid water feels like heaven. It cuts out in the middle so Grace can soap up, then turns back on for her to rinse.

Grace is rinsing her hair when the door opens. She whirls, back to the wall, arm up to block, and stops. It’s her. The other Augment.

“Sorry,” Grace says, holding up both hands. “Sorry. Just got in from the front.”

“I understand.” The woman’s voice is musical, a refined mid-tone.

Grace’s water cuts out.

The other Augment eyes up the showers and asks, “Safe to leave my stuff?”

Grace lowers her hands. “Oh. Yeah. The Commander keeps these grunts honest.”

The other Augment smiles slightly at that. Her smile enhances the graceful curve of her flat nose. She starts to undress, stowing her gear in a salvaged locker too warped to ever close. “I’m Minerva. Call me Min. Version 2, they say. I haven’t seen another one of – us – in a while.” She looks Grace up and down. “Can I ask what you are?”

“Version 3, I guess.”

“Hmmm,” Min says. “Nice job on the ley lines.”

When Grace stares, Min adds, “The scars. That’s what my batch called them.”

Grace laughs a little. “My mentor likes to say they’re the Mark of the Chosen One. I’m Grace.”

Min brightens. “Another Greek mythology fan?”

“What? No.” To Grace, school-sounding things are part of the past’s painful, colorful blur.

It sounds like things like that means more to Min. “In the Greek myths, there were three Graces. One was the wife of the gods’ blacksmith and inventor.” Her head tilts, questioning.

“I’m nobody’s wife,” Grace says.

Min says, a little sadly, “Probably better that way.” She’s nude now, and she steps up to the shower beside Grace. “How do these work here? I swear, they can make us into super-soldiers but they can’t install the same shower tap twice.”

Grace helps her get it going. Which leaves the two of them naked together as the warm water starts. Min gasps in delight. “Your water’s hot! ”

Grace smiles. “It’s good to be warm.”

Min arcs back to keep her curls dry. The move raises her breasts to the water. Her chest is like Grace’s, firm and high: Min’s has more scars involved. “Oh, isn’t it? I hate how we overheat in ten seconds but chill down if it’s a little cold. Did they fix that with you?”

Grace says, “They told us they did. Our bone alloy is different. But they didn’t.”

Together they say, “It’s one of the compromises.” And laugh, a little.

Min asks, “Is yours lighter? The alloy, I mean.” 

“I’m not sure.” When the water cuts out, Min extends a hand. Grace takes it. It’s the first time she’s touched another Augment outside of sparring. Min’s hand is startlingly heavy, radiating strong heat. Grace weighs her for an instant, dials in for a close-up of her scars’ weaving. Gives in to the inevitable and cruises Min’s breasts: her nipples draw Grace’s eyes like a magnet. When she looks up, Min is staring at her; she must have been taking Grace’s measure, too.

Min releases her hand slowly. “Still got some soap there. Want to join me to rinse?”

“Thanks,” Grace says. As the flow starts up again, she tilts her head under, briefly.

It’s hot and steamy, and not just from two showers in a row in this space. Min doesn’t move away when Grace brushes her firm warmth. Grace figures that, as it’s her home base, she should be the one to make a move. “Do you get the other side effects?”

Min, rinsing her back, looks over her shoulder. “Such as?”

“Wanting it all the time.” Grace hears how her own voice has gone husky.

Min’s mouth twists. “A side effect of the ‘muscle enhancers’.” She turns her body more. Stares at the concrete like it’s got something to tell her. Admits, “It is. A thing.”

“Wanna take the edge off?”

Min completes her slow turn to face Grace. With perfect timing, the water cuts out yet again. They stand there, dripping, looking into each other’s eyes. Grace doesn’t know why she adds, “I’ve never been with anyone as tall as I am before.”

Min can’t help laughing at that, a helpless _pffffft._ But it wins her over. She murmurs, “All right.” And, unlike a lot of the soldiers grappling in other parts of this base, leans in for a kiss.

It starts out sweet. Min’s mouth under Grace’s is deliciously full. Grace slips a tongue in and goes hard and – fuck. Min tastes of metal, the tang of strange alloys wedded to proteins. Grace presses in, tasting more, feeling how dense Min is under the flesh. Hard enough to break herself on. A spark that’s got to be electric snaps between them. At the snap, she pulls back. Eyes open wide, she catches Min’s shocked gaze. Grace realizes that, everything she felt, Min felt, too.

Grace puts a hand on Min’s hard waist, draws her in. They fit together so perfectly it’s uncanny, hard to relax into. She sneaks in a stroke of Min’s Augmentation scars: they’ve got the uncanny indentation of her own lines. Grace’s remaining battle scars are blurred and livid, where Min’s are raised and silky. But these, they share.

Slotted against her, cheek to cheek, Grace breathes in her ear, “You’re hot,”

Min nuzzles against Grace’s face. “You’re hot!” It’s Min’s turn to explore, letting her hands rove. Grace is still getting used to the lack of a height difference. It’s good but it’s weird. Competitive, somehow. Dani would’ve been small, tender, as warm as Min but so easy to pick up – damn it, Grace always does this. Partners can feel her clocking out.

Just as Grace is trying to get a grip, they both jolt, because someone’s banged on the door. It doesn’t open – they hear steps caroming away. Grace still says, “Let’s fix this.” With that, Grace shows off by snapping down an empty spar of metal, installed for shower curtains that never arrived. She goes over to the door, to try and figure out how to bar it.

“May I?” says Min, holding out her hand. Grace passes over the spar. Min takes it, gives it a spin, looks down its length as she calculates an angle. Then, she wedges it just so, one end below the door’s handle, the other end dug into the floor. That door is shut until an Augment feels like opening it again.

“Nice,” Grace admits. She feels like an idiot for something like the fourth time this encounter. “Thanks.” In front of Min, she bends her knees, leans in to make her mouth busy.

Grace takes her time going down. She treats herself to some time on Min’s breasts. Despite the scarring there, Min still purrs for Grace’s lips, and her nipples tighten. Grace is torn between relief and jealousy – one of them still has sensation, there. She is spooked, too, by feeling Min more deeply, the resilience of metal mesh, enhanced muscles. Anyone who touches Grace is going to feel the same thing. If she ever gets her heart’s desire – if the hitch in Dani’s breath around Grace tells the truth – can she cope with that?

She hides from the answers by sliding down Min’s waist, trailing down her belly, and burying her face between Min’s legs, in the triangle of curls there. Min sways. “Moving fast there, Version 3. Give me a minute. Is there a bench here, or…”

“Just sit on my face,” Grace rasps. She doesn’t breathe until she’s on the floor, on her back, with Min’s thighs radiating heat on either side of her face. Sensing how Min still hesitates, Grace tries to slow down. Min’s thighs are an appealing distraction, with softness over their muscle and metal. Grace lines them with kisses until Min giggles, her hips easing.

Finally, Grace moves those kisses to Min’s crotch. In Grace’s stripped-down world, without fruit or flowers, a lover’s cunt is the height of organic beauty, second only to a lover’s face. Grace revels in Min’s musky fragrance, her wiry and silky textures, a clit so thick and aroused, yet buried, it rises as an appealing ridge. Grace mouths and probes until she has to breathe. “You’re fucking amazing.”

From above, like a disbelieving goddess, Min says, “I’m not crushing you?”

“No. Welcome to try,” Grace says.

“Hold on…I always wondered about…” Min rises, leaving Grace bereft and chilled, but only for an instant. She pivots on one knee and straddles Grace’s jaw again, levered a bit higher, facing the other way. “Now I can try you, too.”

Grace is prepared to be patient, until Min moves: bends smoothly towards Grace’s own crotch, scooping Grace’s hips higher with one hand beneath Grace’s ass. They are two of the most honed and powerful forms calling themselves human in this world. They can do whatever the fuck they want. Grace braces herself to keep her hips lifted and pulls Min’s hips down over her face.

For the next ten or so minutes, Grace enjoys a faceful of cunt. It’s been a while since she had this refuge from their terrible world. She sends a hot breath to kiss Min’s pussy _hello_ , oh so gently. Then, she laves every millimeter, licking up further than she should, probing the textures of Min’s opening, dropping her jaw to cup all Min’s aroused flesh with her mouth. Min tastes like sex and alloys – like Grace is licking her own fingers after touching herself. 

And Min talks like she picked up her schooling somewhere religious. “Oh, lord. Sweet Jesus. Holy Mother of God!” Grace gets the last one when she sucks and hums and shakes her head, all at once. She’s pleased at what getting enhanced has done to her endurance, at how Min comes, thighs tensing, trapping Grace in her moment’s refuge.

Grace feels Min’s mouth move against Grace’s least favorite scar, the straight line across her abdomen. Hears as Min gasps, “My turn.” Grace feels Min’s tongue as a teasing press, a flicker there and gone. It’s a difficult angle: Grace lifts herself higher, widens her own legs for the full weight of Min’s head, a lap followed by a deep kiss. “Fuck,” Grace rocks her hips up into the other Augment, giving in to herself. “Suck me!” Min obliges. The sensation of it takes Grace over. She sparks and yelps, convulsing, coming faster and shorter than she expected.

Exhaling, Grace lowers herself, folds one leg over. “That’s good,” she says.

Min says, to Grace’s thigh, “You sure?”

“I had a head start. I really liked eating you out.” Grace isn’t feeling fussy. It’s the first time she’s come with someone else since being Augmented. She’s glad her body can still seal the deal. Perhaps Min is, as well. She spins up from her knees gracefully, reaches down and helps Grace up. When they embrace this time, the strangeness of it is gone.

They indulge in a second, shared shower. As they rinse in the last scant water, Min admits, “I don’t usually do this. But for someone like you…who could resist?”

That explains a lot. Grace says, wryly, “Thanks. Want to borrow my towel?”

Min takes it, lowers her eyes as she half-dries herself. Grace feels she’s got some bad news before she says it. “We bug out tomorrow. 500 hours.”

Soldiers party before they go out, too. Grace says, “Kick a toaster for me. And, uh, hope you’ll be back on the flip side.”

For a moment, Grace thinks she can be clever. “Was Hope one of the Greek-myth Grace things?”

Min sighs. “No. The Greeks matched her with suffering.” And with that, Min snaps away the spar that’s keeping the bathroom shut.

Grace goes back to her bunk and turns in. Runs her own hands over herself, remembering the way Min felt. How she would feel to somebody else. To Dani...Grace drifts off. Sleeps a solid six hours, despite the mildew smell and gurgling pipes. Lets Aaron tease her at breakfast the next day. 

Doesn’t see Min again for almost two years.

* * *

When Grace does, it’s in a mess hall again, at another base. With the unit Grace leads now, and with Commander Ramos, too. Grace has sealed the deal with others since Minerva: with Dani most of all. Grace is the one carrying trays this time, empty ones, hers and Dani's, figuring out where empties go in this unfamiliar space. That's when Min pings her. After ditching the empties, Grace detours over. 

When she gets there, everyone else at the table is watching hungrily. Min gives her head a queenly toss, like she knows and is doing what she wants anyway, and says, “I kicked a toaster.”

“Sounds like you kicked a lot with how we’ve been doing. This your home base?”

Min says, “It is. Catch up on your way back?”

“Yeah, let’s.” Min sends a data ping. Grace sends one back, despite a wierd, haunted feeling that the reunion won't happen. They salute each other, just in time for Grace to leave, following Dani. Grace hears Min’s companions murmuring as she goes. By the exhausted standards of their war, that was a warm, extended exchange.

When she catches up, Dani says, “It is good to see you with a friend.” Grace feels herself goes hot, tells herself she’ll spill the whole story to Dani later.

But a lot happens in Los Angeles. Grace doesn’t get the chance to do that, either. Not for a much, much longer time than she is expecting.


	13. the technology (e! dani/grace)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little coda to my story _In The Legion of Angels._ In a future where both Dani and Grace have survived the Machine War, they’re alone at last, and Grace has a bit more technology than herself alone. Now, to find out how they’ll be as lovers a third time around… Explicit femslash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note/warning: They’ll get a little weird, is how – brace yourself for a strap-on and a sweetly kinky Mommy moment. Maybe some body horror, depending on how you feel about scars and cybernetically enhanced sex toys.

It was all over at last: the Machine War.

Dani reflected that, technically, it had been over for almost two months. But what she had done today felt like the last of it. Returning to the place that had once been Carl’s cabin, honoring Sarah’s memory and Graces’ going through Legion’s time gate. Bringing home the young scout who had brought them the warning about the time-gate. Doing that thanks to a pilot who, for all that they’d stolen a hoverflyer and defied everyone else, had followed Dani’s orders. Who was _also_ Grace.

An older, harsher Grace who had survived going back in the past to save a twenty-year-old Dani. After that, Grace had existed in parallel with her younger self, up to Judgement Day. Trying not to break time around that had led Grace and Dani to part, so that Dani could save the younger Grace. 

They had reunited at last two days ago. Today, Grace had forgiven Dani for loving her younger self, now gone through the time-gate. Dani had asked if they could try to be lovers again. Grace had said yes – and then…

They hadn’t had a moment to themselves. Chaperoned first by the scout, then by the entire settlement they’d flown to, and by the work Dani found there. Dani had recognized a resource in this settlement, a fertile valley that wasn’t a badland, untouched by the Machine War. Its leader had kept it that way by being sly and self-serving. She had been surprised at her own verve and charm dealing with him, when she’d thought herself exhausted by war and guilt. But being with this older Grace made Dani feel young again.

The first time they’d become lovers, Dani had been a swept-away girl, clinging to her protector. The second time, she’d been weighed with sin and loneliness: an older woman, Grace’s superior officer, defying the rules to love a hotheaded Augment. Who would she be to Grace now? Who would they become, together?

It was time to find out.

They were walking back to Grace’s ‘flyer, parked on a wooded ridgeline. A late summer sunset was beaming through pine boughs, turning the pine needles cushioning their path to copper, casting a long shadow behind Grace. To that shadow, Dani said, “Thank you for tolerating…tonight.”

“They fed us,” Grace said. Dani pressed her lips on a smile. Grace had destroyed a side of salmon, and anything else within reach.

Grace went on. “Took me back to when I was your soldier. Watching you get them all on your side.”

Dani bowed her head, blushing. But Grace curled her big, battered hands to fists to add, “Keeping myself from punching out your admirers.”

Dani’s eyes flew wide. “What admirers?”

“That guy in charge,” Grace spat. “The one who was smarming all over you.”

“He is very old.” 

“He’s _my_ age, fifty-something. And twice as wide as I am, lucky bastard. Then there’s that damn scout. The kid’s in love with you. Always talking your ear off.”

Dani said, “They brought me news of the time-gate – and of how you went through it. And they are so young, in their teens, with no mother. You like them too, yes? Always giving them advice.”

Grace said, “That wasn’t liking. I didn’t want them to get killed trying to impress you.”

Between amused and wistful, Dani said, “You sound like Sarah.”

“Agh!” Grace began double-timing up the path, and Dani didn’t feel young anymore.

“Grace!”

“What?”

Dani was locked still. Her right hip, once broken, sometimes ached and froze simultaneously. “I cannot walk so fast.”

Grace whirled around, strode back to her. And they stared at each other, face to face, now.

Grace was a little higher up on the hillside pathway. It made her taller than ever. Under her pilot’s flying suit, and a battered, sleeveless leather jacket, her athletic leanness had gone wiry. Beneath the leather pilot’s helmet she wore everywhere, now, silver hair peeked out, not gold. It didn’t matter to Dani that Grace was older. It did matter that she had twice as many scars as before. Picturing the pain of that tightened Dani’s chest.

What did Grace see when she looked at Dani? Whatever it was, it softened her. Grace turned the flash of her blue eyes aside. “I’ve turned into Sarah, haven’t I.”

“No!” Dani cried. “No, I have. I order people around, I see how terrible things can be.” She’d owned what Sarah had given her long ago. And forgotten, in missing Sarah, how Grace had very different memories about their old mentor.

Grace’s mouth tilted. “You survived.” Then, Grace leaned down. Dani reached for her gratefully, but didn’t expect an Augmented arm to turn a hug into a lift. Grace swept her off her feet – literally. “I’ll carry you the rest of the way.”

With an arm behind her shoulders, and another beneath her legs, Dani let Grace do that. After years of carrying a Resistance it was, honestly, wonderful. She leaned her head against Grace’s left shoulder, let herself be held closer as Grace climbed, not super-soldier-fast anymore, still supernally strong.

In about twenty of Grace’s long strides, they reached a clearing. They’d parked the ‘flyer there hours earlier. Dani had decided against a dramatic landing, for security’s sake. Grace, wanting to keep the ‘flyer at all costs, had agreed.

Grace set Dani down. “I need to light up.”

Dani stepped away tactfully. Trying to free her enhanced body from ten different drugs, Grace had fallen back on an old solution, cannabis. Dani couldn’t deny that weed would be more available, after the war, than manufactured drugs. For the price of winning against the Machines had been to sacrifice most technology. They’d reversed Earth’s magnetism, setting off sweeping electromagnetic pulses. Most circuitry more complicated than a light bulb was dead. Grace’s still-working flyer was an aeronautical gamble. Grace herself, with her complex Augments, was shielded by lead and metal tucked into her jacket and helmet.

While Grace smoked, Dani explored the clearing. On one side, the hoverflyer was tucked under the valley’s pine trees. Up here, the trees were thin and battered, damaged by the world’s post-nuclear storms, but alive and growing yet. Birds called from their branches. Pine needles were thick and fragrant underfoot. At the clearing’s southern edge, a clear rill leapt and sparkled. Grace had tested it earlier. It was only a little radioactive.

Dani said, “It is beautiful here. Is this what the world might be in ten years? Twenty? A hundred?”

Grace ambled over. Her limbs and face were relaxed, now, eyes gone slate-blue and heavy. “You’re beautiful.”

Dani felt her heart betraying her, beating faster. The diplomat and negotiator managed one syllable. “Oh?”

Grace reached for her, sliding a thumb across Dani’s cheekbones, as slowly and deliberately as she spoke. “Don’t say again that you’re older. I like you older. And I have been thinking about you every damn night for twenty years. Fuck, I want you.”

Dani rested her face against Grace’s hand. “ _Te quiero tambien_.” It was such a relief to say that without guilt. Without worrying about time, in so many ways. Turning her face, she gave Grace’s thumb a little kiss.

Grace drew in a raw breath. Then, she scooped Dani up again, this time with one hand under Dani’s ass, one of her thighs wedged between Dani’s, to growl in Dani’s ear. “The things I thought about doing to you. Fuck. I want to eat your cunt and lick your ass and fuck you till your come drips down my arm. Undress you with my hands tied behind my back. Worship you with my tongue from your boots to your collarbones. Tie you up to the pilot’s seat in the flyer and make you come ‘til you scream. I’m not kidding! Stop laughing!”

Dani, twisting blissfully against her touch, couldn’t help it. All this energy, all this need, was so very Grace.

Grace went on. “I was stuck in a bunker with two hundred goddamned mad scientists. Getting kinky was one of the only things to do. And, fuck, I missed you – ”

Dani leaned in and embraced her shoulders. “We will do everything you want. I promise. But, such a long day. So tonight – ” she tapped Grace’s nose – “Pick one!”

It was Grace’s turn to laugh. “One…I know what.”

With that, Grace swung Dani around into a hip carry and hauled her into the ‘flyer.

Dani could stand up inside the low-ceilinged ‘flyer, but Grace couldn’t. She put Dani down right away. “I’ll set us up.” Dani watched with interest as Grace opened lockers that had once held soldiers’ gear and pulled out a range of oddments. Parkas, a quilt, flat shapeless things, a case that Grace tucked between her ankles. In short order, Grace had turned the flat, elevated space on top of the vehicle’s battery into a sleeping nest. She finished off by removing the helmet, holding it in front of her, almost shyly.

Dani was charmed. She sat on the edge of the softened space. “Very nice!” She wanted to ask if the quilt wouldn’t be too warm for summer, but was astonished by Grace kneeling in front of her, favoring one leg. Dani’s mouth went dry. Grace had knelt to her a few times before, always to combine adoration with a request to break her heart. What would Grace ask her for, this time? What had she chosen that called for this?

Grace didn’t ask right away. Instead, she sent her hands slipping up Dani’s calves, unzipping Dani’s combat boots, massaging tight muscles. Of course, Grace coiled closer, leaning in, to do this. Arcing in, Grace’s hands slid up to Dani’s thighs, and she lowered her face to join them, dropping kisses and soft bites along the way. 

Dani stroked the hot, heavy, beloved weight of Grace’s metal skull with both hands. After two lonely, strained months, she hadn’t imagined it she could still get this turned on. It was as hard to speak as if she was twenty again. “ _Querida._ ”

Grace rolled her face against both of Dani’s thighs, groaning against them. “So fucking gorgeous. I missed you so much. My Commander and my goddess and…” She trailed off.

Dani asked, “What is your one thing?”

Grace levered up, turned away, gone silent.

“You can say,” Dani insisted, softly.

Grace reached down to the case that was, somehow, still by her ankles. “Uh. Here.” With a click, she opened it. Clearly, the case had once held a laptop or radio, cushioned and RFID-blocked against Machine spying. It held something else now.

Dani yelped, “Fuck!”

“That is what it’s for,” Grace said. And lifted it.

It was what Dani had half-expected, and yet not. A shaft, a toy, a cock, its phallic shape as old as humanity. But its making seemed stolen from the cancelled Machine future. It was mostly black, with some metal seams and highlights. Dani glimpsed electrodes and grayness inside its wide, cupped base. When Grace touched it, ruby lights sparked to life here and there. And the gray base _rippled_ , disconcertingly.

Dani swallowed. “Where are the straps?”

Grace said, “There aren’t any. It’s – it connects to me. Networks with my Augments, like the ‘flyer does. The base of it’s that polyalloy - ”

“From the Rev-9!” Dani scrambled back.

Grace said, “They stole everything else about me from the Terminators. Something from it all feels good for once, I’ll take it.”

Dani stopped. “It feels?”

Grace lit up. “Yes! It’s a total mindfuck! It’s got sensors that pick up – stuff. Heat, pressure, wetness. I can grab it myself but it’s not as good as…well.” Grace added, darkly, “I put up with a lot of shit for this.”

Dani exhaled, on the breath of a hysterical laugh. “That would keep you entertained in a bunker!”

“It’s a mindfuck, and more. But it was never as good as it could be. Not without you.”

Dani’s heart was pounding so hard, she could barely think. She hadn’t been this overwhelmed since her first time with Grace. No, soon after that, when she and Grace had tried a simpler strap-on. “All right. Let us try.”

Saying that, Dani didn’t know what to expect. Grace stood up, shed and slid clothes away. Dani felt a pang. Under her jumpsuit, Grace was wearing one of the tank tops she’d lived in, back in their shared past. Grace kept that on. That familiarity made up for what Dani watched, right in front of her face. Grace revealed her silvery quim for one moment, then got busy sliding the cybershaft in place.

Grace tensed, grunted. The cybershaft’s ruby lights blinked. Dani glimpsed a probing slither of mercury-gray. All the shaft’s lights flashed at once. Grace gasped, “Connected.”

The way Grace moaned that word was another note of the familiar. And _connected_ was right, somehow. Along with the circuits, Grace’s extra scars, and the silver gleam of her pubes, linked her to the metal and strangeness of the cybershaft. To the pleasure she’d found in her Augmented body: the flowing yearning Dani still felt for her. Dani sat up straighter. She’d loved Grace as a time-traveler, as a soldier, as a memory. She hadn’t loved Grace by being a coward. Dani leaned in and lapped the blunt black tip of the shaft, once.

Grace bent double with a cry. “Fuck! It’s – it’s _you_ – Dani – “ Grace got enough control back that her descent, slow and overwhelmed, brought her to kneeling on the platform, above Dani.

Dani found she’d opened her thighs. “Wait,” she breathed, and dragged off her officer's black uniform. Being carried and whispered to and kissed breathless had definitely warmed Dani up. Feeling Grace jolt like it was her first time with Dani again, too, finished Dani off. She reached. “Come!” 

Together, carefully, they slid together. The cybershaft’s entry wasn’t too much for Dani. It was warm, this thing, and Dani felt it shift inside her. Maybe it was filled with nanoflesh, too, molding to her contours. Grace, entering and feeling, chanted _fuck_ like an unholy catechism, thrusting fast and shallow. When Dani tensed, Grace, amazingly, stopped. Her breath was rags as she asked, “’S all right?”

Dani realized she’d said _yes_ and _more_ in Spanish after she said it. Grace understood, and hammered her hips down. Dani felt that as much as she felt the wide, firm-cored shaft opening her: both sensations unified, part of Grace. She was spread and taken, filled and drilled, as offline as Grace was on, and she heard herself keening.

In response, Grace rasped, “Dani, it’s good. It’s so good. I need it. Need you. _Mami_ – ”

Dani’s incredulous gasp paused them both. Grace went stock still, at the height of one of her thrusts. It was the only way they could look into each other’s eyes. Grace looked shocked at herself. Other young people Dani had fostered had called her _Mami_ – but never Grace. Until now, and such a now, twisted by time and desire and tech. 

There was a dry, agonizing moment. Finally, Grace admitted, “I’ve. Been talking to you in my head for so long. I – fuck.” Eyes twisted shut, Grace turned her face away, even as her thighs shuddered, twitching in helpless pleasure at their bodies’ augmented connection. 

That vulnerable shiver undid Dani again. She grabbed Grace where she could, by the forearms bracing her on either side, holding her defiantly. Burning with hunger and care, scorched by the streak of wrongness that had always been between them, lovers misaligned in time. Hadn’t they earned the right to do whatever they wanted? Hadn’t Dani wrested this moment, and the future, from her pain – like a mother did?

Dani stroked Grace’s forearms. “ _Querida. Mami_ needs you, too.”

Grace exhaled, in a body-deep shudder, “ _Oh_.” And hammered home again.

Grace claimed her now with hot, timeless whispers as well as desperate thrusts. It should have been punishing. Instead, Dani couldn’t get enough. After everything she’d let go of, she felt wild. Again, she opened for her lover, given over and done, full of so much pleasure she had to cry out to release it. “You’re coming,” Grace said, joyously. “Fuck, I feel it.”

The thrusts uniting them went fast and shallow once more. Grace arced her spine, curling above Dani. Steely arms cupped Dani’s head, tenderly; Grace’s hard face was beside hers, the heat and dampness of her. _Heat_ , Dani thought, knowing she glowed with it herself; wetness, too, enough that she squirmed in shame and delight at it. Dani inhaled, tightening her core, to give Grace the last of what she needed, loving pressure, the deepest embrace. Grace bucked against Dani with a howl, calling her every name. Coming like lightning coiled inside her.

Afterwards, Grace half-collapsed on Dani, panting. Feeling her bad hip twinge at Grace’s still-leaden weight, Dani squirmed. “ _Querida_ …move…”

Grace lifted. Dani felt relief, then an odd chill as the cybershaft withdrew. She arced her shoulders back, rolled her hips. After all that, she was amazed to find herself still soft and open. Like she wasn’t done receiving Grace’s desire. Hearing Grace rummaging, Dani tilted to watch. The sun had finished setting, but Grace didn’t need its light to wipe down the cybershaft and, hastily, rebox it. This done, Grace visibly relaxed. She turned back to Dani. “Sorry. Don’t want _that_ to get fried in a magnetism surge.” Her voice was still rough.

Dani murmured agreement. Grace thudded down beside her again. Dani wanted it to be pure affection as she snuggled in, but she couldn’t help taking Grace’s measure. Grace was sweating enough to be chilled by it. She was hot, but not as blazing as she had been after fights. Her pulse still thrummed enough for Dani to feel it. “Do you need more?”

“Fuck, no. My crotch is still ringing. You?” Tenderly, Grace stroked back Dani’s loose, tangled hair. Close to a whisper, she asked, “Did I hurt you?”

“No.” Their height difference vanished as Dani, with a kiss in mind, levered up Grace’s body. Grace echoed her, sliding lower to kiss and nip Dani’s neck, her collarbones, working down to her breasts. Dani moaned lightly, shivering as Grace’s reinforced jaw stopped short of biting her nipples. She pulled Grace’s short hair. “Be nice, now.”

Grace rolled her hot face below Dani’s breasts. “Yes, Mom,” she mumbled, and kept kissing down. More seriously, she said, “You took care of me. Now I’ll take care of you.” After the way she’d already come, Dani exhaled a laugh, but let Grace keep going.

Soon, Dani spread her legs again, this time for the weight of Grace’s head. Grace’s skull was heavy but her touch was light as she brought her kisses home, licking Dani out. Dani didn’t have to do anything but relax while long, soft strokes of Grace’s tongue soothed her.

Dani wrapped her legs around Grace’s shoulders, let the rest of herself melt. Let herself purr when Grace showed how well she remembered what Dani liked. Squirmed as Grace slowly, firmly got more intense. Grace focused on a point right below Dani’s small, sensitive clit, using two fingertips to stroke below that, moaning right into Dani’s flesh. This time, when Dani came, it was deep and soft, the bliss of it lingering in her thighs.

Afterwards, spooning blissfully against Grace, it felt like a long night. Dani didn’t really sleep. Wondering what they were going to do next kept her awake. Dani was seriously tempted to stay here, camp out in the ‘flyer with Grace, dip into the valley when they needed supplies. Once she had resigned herself to leaving – Commander Dani Ramos still had responsibilities – a set of auroras started. Dani opened her eyes to enjoy the spectacle. Blue and green light dappled the inside of the ‘flyer, outlined Grace’s sleeping profile.

When the auroras flared bright, Grace grumbled. She woke up enough to drag the quilt over herself. It was weighted with stitching and metal, no doubt protecting her augmentations against the magnetism sweeping the sky. After scooping Dani under with her, Grace fell back asleep. Dani figured that, if she couldn’t sleep, she would enjoy curling up against Grace’s long back. Treasuring the weight and warmth and size of Grace, feeling how Grace’s skin had softened with time. _Like Sarah’s_ , Dani thought, knowing she could never say that to Grace.

Somehow, the next thing Dani knew, she was awake and it was dawn. Grace was up, dressed, rattling. Dani blinked as something landed next to her face. It was a ration bar, and Grace was saying, “Breakfast, Commander.”

Dani raised a brow at that, after what Grace had called her last night. But it was daylight. Grace was doing what Dani had asked yesterday, getting ready to fly. They would be together for another nightfall, with more for Grace to offer and confess. Time wasn’t Dani’s enemy anymore. Smiling about that, Dani asked, “What is your rank now?”

Grace said, with a grin, “Deserter, probably.”

“We will sort that out.” It would, Dani thought, take some doing. But that was part of the care for each other their new lives would have.

Getting dressed, Dani watched Grace tear through two ration bars. Dani forced down half of hers and asked Grace, echoing last night, “Is that enough?”

Grace said, “Yeah. Though it tastes like glue after that salmon. Ready to go?”

 _Not really,_ Dani thought. She buckled herself into the co-pilot’s seat anyway. “I suppose we should.” She heard the _chunk_ of the hoverflyer’s unlock sliding home, set in motion by Grace, and braced herself for the whine of ‘flyer takeoff.

It didn’t come.

Grace cleared her throat. “Uh. Dani?”

Dani watched Grace sliding the flyer’s unlock out of its slot, then back in again. “It’s not working.”

“We are stuck here?” Dani couldn’t keep a lilt of relief out of her voice.

Grace didn’t catch it. She gave the whole works a rattle, snapped her belts open. “Don’t say it. Do not tell me I sound like Sarah. But – goddamn motherfucking _machines!_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [In the Legion of Angels](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23503126) is here.
> 
> Thanks to sigmalibrae and dire_quail for advance reading, and to dire_quail for letting me borrow the cyber-strap concept from their story [Augmented](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22576156) \- where future!Grace explores her own piece of technology. If you liked this story you'll _love_ that one!


	14. the arrangement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waiting for Judgement Day, Sarah and Grace both know too much - and need a break from it. Smut! With Sarah on top.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for dirty talk, blurry gender, explicit pre-apocalyptic sex, and fisting. And a Kyle mention or two.

Sarah reclined on her bed at their latest refuge, a cabin in a California mountain town. It was dark out, but still early for a career insomniac like herself. The book she flicked through might keep her going until it was late.

Sarah sipped a tumbler of tequila, turned a page. The thick novel she held had swept her away when she was Dani’s age. Nearly forty years later, the former best-seller was annoying her with its drawn-out arguments, stupidly proud men. She was still determined to finish it. She’d feel like a dumbass if Judgement Day came around _again_ and she hadn’t.

That had been the problem, today. The waiting.

At times, Sarah felt it wasn’t the unreal, time-twisted things that had happened that made her crazy. It was knowing what was coming next. Another Terminator, sent back in time to kill; an artificial-intelligence takeover; the nuclear finality of Judgement Day. Knowing that every okay day brought Judgement Day that much closer.

Grace had never told them the date of Judgement Day. Neither Sarah nor Dani have asked her –though Sarah knew it wasn't a date you forgot. But she could tell it would be soon. Because Grace never naysaid Sarah’s paranoia, or her ideas of how to train Dani for it.

It was starting to wear on Dani. Today, Dani had been snappish, culminating with a rant at dinner. She was coming down to earth at last, looking at the future and realizing how grim it was. Grace, twitchy at her Commander-savior-girlfriend’s burnout, had pleaded with Dani, followed her out on the cabin’s porch, and hauled her into their bedroom. Sarah joined them in there sometimes, but she knew better than to interrupt them tonight. Even with what she was reading.

Sarah’s book was at the spicy part, a once-notorious scene with a courtesan and an almost-three-way. Part of Sarah thought the book’s star-crossed lovers, especially the man, were being idiots, not going for it. But spending time with Dani and Grace, she’d frozen in place more than once, overwhelmed by wanting. It had taken the pair of them together to close the gap. 

She’d been braver with Kyle. Warily, she allowed herself a moment’s feeling about her protector from the future, loved and lost. She knew she didn’t miss a real person. She missed what might have been, if he had lived. She’d talk about Kyle too much to Dani, if she let herself: make herself a fool.

There was a soft knocking on her door. Probably Dani, herself, wanting a little closure and comfort. A while back, Sarah would have said that was useless. Now, Sarah got up to let her in. 

Dani wasn’t there. It was, instead, Grace. Tall, and wet-haired in her eternal tank top and boxers, frowning. “You need hearing aids.”

Sarah frowned back. “Just because you can hear something doesn’t mean I can, supersoldier.”

Grace folded her arms. “I’ve been knocking for five minutes. Hearing aids. Tomorrow.”

“Thanks for telling me I’m old. Anything else?”

Grace leaned in, just enough that her arms’ fold changed from a bar to holding herself in. “I. Can I…”

Sarah stood aside for the one other person who knew the madness they were waiting for as much as she did.

With Grace in it, the pine-paneled room felt smaller and hotter. Grace sat hard on the bed, flipping Sarah’s book shut. Sarah reached to grab it, but it was too late: her page was lost.

Grace looked at the paperback in Sarah’s hand. “You’re reading all that?”

Pleased, Sarah said, “Mph.”

Grace half-folded her arms again. Rubbing a hand against one well-turned bicep, she said. “Dani’s fine. I let her go to sleep.”

Sarah exhaled, on the edge of a laugh. “Instead of getting you off, huh? Time for some quid pro quo?”

Grace stiffened again. “Maybe if you speak English, not Spanish.”

Sarah and Grace insulted each other all kinds of ways. But Sarah knew it would be a step too far to call Grace a dumb jock. Though Grace did have her moments. “This for that. Our arrangement.”

Just as Dani sometimes slipped in for comfort, or a training session got handsy, so too she and Grace wound up like this, every once in a while. A thin excuse, quiet voices, hard hands. Hard enough to forget the pain they were waiting for, together.

Grace’s mouth parted. Sarah had the feeling Grace had used up tonight’s words with Dani. Grace’s expression flicked like shuffled cards: eyes narrowed and mouth hard in defense, going down to a high hard flush on her cheekbones and a very tired sigh. When she finished exhaling, she reached out with one long, strong arm and pulled Sarah in.

Grace’s first move was to rest her Augmentation-heavy skull on Sarah’s solar plexus. Under the cool wetness of her hair, Grace’s forehead was scorching. Sarah half-combed at Grace’s wet locks, rattled at what the smooth dampness over fever brought back to her. Taking care of her son, thirty years ago: holding her lover Kyle, longer ago than that.

Trying to shove that away, Sarah quipped, “Taking a shower didn’t cool you down.”

In response, Grace turned her head to one side, seeking the scant comfort of Sarah’s tits. Sarah gave in. She dragged her shirt off to give Grace access. Grace’s mouthing got demanding, hungry, fast.

Sarah hissed at the heat and force of it. She tugged at Grace’s hair to slow it all down. “You’ve got crossed wires if you want me, you know that?”

“Yeah, well, I can’t get repaired here. But…” Grace trailed off, out of sass already. And she was right. There wasn’t much repairing their own grinding gears between now and Judgement Day. Except with this.

Sarah curled her hands in Grace’s hair, tried to shake Grace's head. Grace’s neck didn’t budge. Sarah still said, “Get on the bed. The way you want it.”

Grace turned, pivoted, and was kneeling on the bed in an instant. With her back to Sarah, she dragged her boxers down. That was all Grace took off. She leaned forwards, onto all fours, flushed face away from Sarah. Her behind was tight and narrow, indented at the sides, muscles sliding into scars and more muscle. A great ass, spectacular legs – for a man.

Sarah pressed her lips tight, decided to keep her own jeans on. Female, male, whatever: she didn’t compare. Besides, who was she to judge? What kind of a woman was she, now, anyway? Sarah was jealous of Grace’s muscle and endurance, not Grace’s evaporating beauty of thick gold hair and blue eyes. She and Grace were in the same soldierly space, their world narrowed to one insane fight, hardened for it. She’d sliced off her own hair, whittled her hips down to flanks. Sarah’s own words ran out thinking about it. She curled a hand around Grace’s own flank and pulled herself onto the bed, to kneel behind Grace.

Sarah had always had wide hands for her skinny frame, and they were good for this. She made a knife of one hand’s fingers and slid it along Grace’s crack, letting her thumb stay behind as her fingers probed forwards. Despite her shower, Grace was a mess between her legs, slick and swollen, hot and rough. “No cleaning up when you’re this dirty, huh?”

Grace said, shakily, “No…”

Sarah left her thumb where it was while she finger-fucked Grace hard. Grace rocked herself into the motion of Sarah’s arm. Sarah dragged in hard breaths herself, feeling the unique, clamping tension of Grace, muscles holding harder than they had a right to, strength that could rip her arm off if Grace made the wrong move. Grace didn’t: instead, she slowly leaned forwards, toppling against Sarah’s pillows, keeping her thighs high. A new touch met Sarah’s finger-fucking. Sarah snapped, “Did I say you could jack off?”

Grace smacked her hand back on the bed, foursquare again, and wasn’t _that_ interesting.

“I need more,” Grace rasped. The same way she did when, after a fight, she really needed those meds of hers.

Sarah knew what Grace meant. They’d gone deep a few times. Her mouth went dry in anticipation at going there again. “Then stay still.”

She pulled out, smacked Grace’s ass, and leaned over to the bedside table. Next to the tequila was something she’d miss after Judgement Day, decent damn lube.

Grace was still following orders. Seeing her tense in every muscle, hot and shaking, Sarah said _fuck it_ to washing up. She lubed her already-sticky hand up to the wrist, then slapped more lube on Grace where it counted. To Grace’s twitch and snarl, she said, “This is prep. Be ready.”

Sarah took her time working her whole hand inside Grace. Again, she made her fingers a blade, a probe. This time, entering, she gave the turn of her arm a twist. Right at the hard part, where Sarah used a bit of force to get the ball of her thumb inside, Grace started hyperventilating. Sarah coiled her free hand around Grace’s left thigh. “Breathe, soldier. Breathe or I won’t fuck you.”

Again, Grace obeyed. And when she exhaled, Sarah’s fist slid home.

Sarah felt her own blood brighten and chill with adrenaline. Fuck, there was nothing like this, the power trip of it. This was the closest she’d ever get to reaming out a Terminator. When Grace exhaled, Sarah’s hand, inside her, could feel curves of metal, the weight of black boxes, Grace’s power source. When Grace inhaled, the whole works tightened down to hot, pulsing flesh. Somewhere in there, between the metal and flesh, was the screaming orgasm Grace needed. Sarah set to work to drag it out.

What followed was as wild as it could be in near-silence. Sarah worked her arm like she could overheat Grace, burn her out. Grace rocked back into her, a cylinder for a piston, perfectly tense, perfectly tight. Hiding her face, Grace let herself make small, raw noises, primitive breaths. Most of the time, Sarah had her own eyes closed, focusing on precision fucking. When she opened her eyes, it took her breath away, seeing her wrist sunk clearly to the forearm in Augmented flesh, framed by physical perfection.

Sarah gave in to talking dirty. Some words shut Grace down like a switch, but that didn’t stop Sarah. It meant she got to get inventive. “Look at you. Ass in the air. Letting me ream you out from behind. Wet down to your knees. Half my fucking arm up your hole. Good thing the pair of you made a dyke out of me. You’re as filthy as I am.”

By now, Grace’s noises were helpless. Her flesh was hot enough that Sarah started to worry. If getting Grace off was going to take two of them, fine. “Jack off now. Go on.” 

Sarah felt Grace’s fingers brush her pumping wrist. She closed her eyes again, to finish this hot, hard job, and gasped. Grace had jolted back and clamped down on her, trembling hard, locking Sarah’s arm still. They both hissed as Grace juddered out a long, hard, climax.

After a good half a minute, when Sarah’s hand was released, she gave her arm a twist and made Grace come again. This time Grace’s moans went guttural. Sarah’s hand turned in sudden lavish wetness. “Good soldier,” she said. “Next time, we’ll show Dani.” That got her arm clamped a third time.

Finally, Sarah mopped her hand clean-ish on her own t-shirt and gazed down in satisfaction. Grace was down at last, coiled on her side, gasping. Sarah could see her face, her clean profile. Her hair had dried, then dampened again with sweat, thick and tousled. “Meds?”

“In. In a minute.” Grace levered herself up on one elbow, reaching for the water bottle she’d brought. Sarah unfolded her legs, let herself sit on the bed’s edge. The silvery edge of adrenaline was starting to withdraw.

Grace turned over to curl around Sarah as she sat, for a bit, and that was strange. Sarah had thought about taking Grace down like this a lot, but not about the aftermath. Not about Grace petting her, clumsy, still reeling, and asking in a half-drunk voice, “What do you want?”

Sarah was wetter than anyone her age had a right to be, hot and cold with adrenaline, all her longings close enough to touch. She leaned her lower back against Grace’s weight, into her own yearning. “What was it like? Going through the time gate?”

Grace huffed. “You couldn’t ask for something easy.”

Sarah kept her own silence. This was the only time to ask. When Dani wasn’t there to be torn by the answer: in the space their two bodies had made.

Grace levered upwards, to sit beside Sarah. She coiled her own right hand, trying to hold something ungraspable. “It was…blue. Then white. Then pain.” She licked her lips, looked down. Away. “A fuckton of pain.”

Sarah gave in to herself. “That’s what he said. Kyle. White light, pain like being born.”

Grace jerked her head up, at that. Sarah went on. “After that pain…he just plowed through everything this time threw at him like it was nothing. Same way you do.”

Grace asked, “Was he an Augment?”

Sarah blinked. “No.”

“Then it wasn’t the same. Whatever he did…it was more.” Grace folded one arm in on another, stroking her own scars.

“It was what it was. Like you and Dani.”

Grace’s eyes flicked up, at that. Her blue gaze pinned Sarah for a long moment. Sarah had no idea what Grace saw that was worth looking at. But she didn’t turn away.

If Sarah let that go on one more second, she would make a fool of herself. She batted Grace’s arm with a tired, aching hand. “I’m fine. Go check on her.”

They were back where they’d started, with their own rough balance. Grace tipped that a little by leaning on Sarah’s shoulder to stand, by saying, on her way out, “G’night.” She closed the door behind her, quietly.

With Grace gone, the room felt twice as big as it had before.

Sarah drained her glass. Picked up her book, stared blindly at a page for half a minute. Then she smacked it shut again to rip her jeans open at last, cram her hand between her own legs. “Goddamn it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sarah is still working her way through the 1976 novel _Shogun_. Will she finish before Judgement Day at this rate?
> 
> After all Terminator: Dark Fate's explosions (and the ones she's lived through in my stories) Sarah's got to need hearing aids by now. 
> 
> _Quid pro quo_ \- Latin. This for that: an exchange, a bribe, an arrangement. 
> 
> Wrote this for myself and the proud - the few - the Sarah/Grace appreciators. You know who you are! -winks-


End file.
